Within the research focus "Language and Medicine" I am especially interested in the field of speech comprehension and hearing. In recent years, the research activities have been extended to a better understanding of the importance of the central parts of hearing in the brain. In the interaction between peripheral and central hearing systems, mechanisms are found that explain the occurrence of tinnitus, as well as the impairment of speech understanding due to aging processes or brain pathologies in both the neurological and psychiatric realms. Such impairments cannot be measured in routine with the diagnostic possibilities available to date. Here I would be interested in networking classical audiological methods (ABR, hearing in background noise, speech audiometry) with neurophysiological methods (EEG). In particular, it would be important to develop an algorithm that can better predict the possibilities of improving speech comprehension after device supply (hearing aid, cochlear implant) or surgery (middle ear surgery). In addition to measures to improve hearing, it would also be desirable to use scientific methods to investigate whether standardized hearing training with or without hearing aids can lead to an improvement in speech comprehension.