Research News

Boys Town Hosts World Cerebral Palsy Day Event

Friday, November 8, 2024

​​The Boys Town National Research Hospital Institute for Human Neuroscience and Center for Human Performance Optimization hosted a rodeo-themed World Cerebral Palsy Day event on Oct. 6. Nearly 200 people gathered to celebrate and raise awareness for cerebral palsy.“What we're trying to do is bring together the community and families that have children and adults who have cerebral palsy… just to ce...

Karla McGregor, Director of Boys Town Hospital’s Word Learning Laboratory, Has Been Selected for an ASHA Lifetime Achievement Award

Thursday, September 19, 2024

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has chosen Karla McGregor, Ph.D., lead scientist at the Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning Center at Boys Town National Research Hospital and Director of the Word Learning Laboratory, as their next recipient of the Kawana Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publications. Named for the former director of ASHA publications, Alfred K,...

Boys Town New Endowed Chair in Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning to be Held by Lisa Goffman, Ph.D.

Friday, July 19, 2024

Boys Town welcomes Lisa Goffman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP as the new Endowed Chair in the Center on Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning. Her research focuses on how children with developmental language disorder (DLD) acquire language and motor abilities. She is interested in how interactions between language, cognitive, and motor skills may contribute to new and effective assessment and interven...

Boys Town Raises Awareness for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Friday, October 20, 2023

​​​Today, October 20th, is Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Awareness Day. DLD Day was originated to bring attention to this neurodevelopmental condition that limits the learning, comprehension and expression of spoken language. Karla McGregor, Ph.D., senior scientist and director at Boys Town's Center for Childhood Deafness Language, and Learning answered a few common questions about ...

Boys Town’s Kaylah Lalonde, Ph.D., Awarded the Early Career Research from the American Auditory Society

Monday, April 24, 2023

​Kaylah Lalonde, Ph.D., Director of the Audiovisual Speech Processing Laboratory, was awarded the Early Career Research Award at the 50th Annual Scientific and Technology Conference of the American Auditory Society (AAS) held in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early March.Dr. Lalonde's primary line of study focuses on audiovisual speech enhancement, the way listeners use visual cues on a speaker's face to...

Boys Town Becomes the First Pediatric Hospital in Nebraska With Level 4 Epilepsy Program

Monday, April 10, 2023

​​For years, Boys Town National Research Hospital has led the region in treating complex epilepsy diagnoses, but in March of 2023, the Boys Town Pediatric Epilepsy Program received an official level 4 accreditation through the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, certifying our comprehensive approach to diagnosis and treatment of pediatric epilepsy patients.“We are so honored and excited ...

Boys Town’s Monita Chatterjee, Ph.D., Receives the American Auditory Society’s Carhart Memorial Award

Friday, April 7, 2023

Boys Town National Research Hospital's Monica Chatterjee, Ph.D., Director of the Auditory Prostheses and Perception Laboratory, delivered the Carhart Memorial Lecture and received the Carhart Memorial Award at the 50th Annual Scientific & Technology Conference in Scottdale, Arizona, in early March.Established by the American Auditory Society (AAS), the Carhart Memorial Lecture and Award were creat...

Groundbreaking Imaging Suite Opens at Boys Town National Research Hospital

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

​ ​​​​​​​​At Boys Town National Research Hospital, the emphasis has and continues to be providing extraordinary care for children and their families. On December 15th, Boys Town took another large step toward that aim.Tony Wilson, Ph.D., the director of the Institute for Human Neuroscience at Boys Town, and his team of re​nowned scientists became the second of only two facilities in the world to i...

An “Experimental Station” - Youth Care Research at Boys Town

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

This year the Boys Town Child and Family Translational Research Center (TRC) is celebrating 30 years of Youth Care research publications with our 2021 Applied Research Bibliography. The bibliography contains 566 citations and abstracts of published Youth Care research which includes peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters. This anniversary provided us an opportunity to reflect on ...

Boys Town Research Paper Named Editor’s Choice by The Journal of Pathology

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

​​​​​​​A recent article by Dominic Cosgrove, Ph.D., Senior Director of the Boys Town National Research Hospital® Research Center, and his team was featured in the September issue of The Journal of Pathology and has been selected by the Editor-in-Chief to be his Editor's Choice. The Editor's Choice award is given to the article that the editor feels is the “must read" of the issue. Dr. Cosgrove...

Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids on the Way by Fall

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

​A new class of hearing aids that do not require a hearing exam or prescription will be available over-the-counter by mid-October, due to a recent ruling by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The devices are intended for adults with mild to moderate hearing problems. The FDA estimates that nearly 30 million adults in America could potentially benefit from hearing aid use, but only about one-f...

Change Lives and Earn Money

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

​​​​You can earn money, help advance science and change lives by participating in research studies this summer at Boys Town! Boys Town is looking for participants from all age groups to join our life-changing research studies. Participants may earn $15 per hour or more for their time. Studies are non-invasive and fun – and can help change the lives of children with hearing, communication, developm...

Boys Town National Research Hospital has been Awarded a $12.5 Million COBRE Grant to Study Pediatric Brain Health

Friday, March 4, 2022

Boys Town National Research Hospital will create a new Center for Pediatric Brain Health using funding from a $12.5 million COBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) grant that was recently awarded from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This grant is renewable at a similar funding level for up to 15 years. The Center for Pediatric Brain Health will be an important new part of the rec...

Supporting the Next Generation of Neuroscientists at Boys Town’s New Pediatric Center for Brain Health

Thursday, March 3, 2022

​Boys Town National Research Hospital received a $12.5 million COBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) grant from the National Institute to develop the next generation of neuroscientists…but the outcome this will have on pediatric neurological, mental, and behavioral health is priceless.Meet Our Researchers Gaelle Doucet, Ph.D.Brain Architecture, Imaging and Cognition Laboratory...

Ryan McCreery, Ph.D., Voted onto American Auditory Society Board of Directors

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

​​Boys Town National Research Hospital would like to congratulate Ryan McCreery, Ph.D., Boys Town Vice President of Research and the Director of the Audibility, Perception and Cognition Laboratory. Dr. McCreery has been selected as a member of the Board of Directors at the American Auditory Society (AAS) by a vote of his peers.​​​​​​​​ Ryan McCreery, Ph.D.​ “The American Auditory Society...

Types of Child Maltreatment have Different Impacts on how Children Learn Social Behavior

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

​Rewarding good behavior, punishing bad behavior, and redirecting a child to help show him or her how to act or behave across situations are tried and true reinforcement strategies that parents use every day. What Boys Town has known for years is that while these strategies work for most children, not everyone benefits as much as others – especially children who have suffered from abuse or neglect...

New Center for Human Performance Optimization Is Awarded a Grant in Its First Month of Operation

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

​The Foundation for Physical Therapy Research announced the presentation of their 2021 Foundation for Physical Therapy Research Award to Brad Corr, PT, DPT, Associate Director of Physical Rehabilitation at the Center for Human Performance Optimization, for his clinical trial “Powering Through Transition: Therapeutic Power Training for Adolescents and Adults with Cer...

Patterns or Phonics? Unraveling Dyslexia and Statistical Learning

Thursday, December 2, 2021

​Sometimes looking at a learning issue from a new angle will generate innovative ways of helping those who deal with the problem.This may be the case with a new research paper published by Christopher Conway, Ph.D., Director of the Brain, Learning and Language Laboratory at Boys Town National Research Hospital and Sonia Singh, Ph.D., of The University of Texas at Dallas, which looks at an ...

IMPACT Reveals the Importance of DEI in Speech Pathology and Audiology

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

​​​As Boys Town presents more Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) opportunities to our associates, it becomes more apparent that there are always additional avenues to be explored. That's why faculty at the Boys Town Center for Perception and Communication in Children joined forces last year with a new program created by Jessica Sullivan, Ph.D., of Hampton University and Lauren Calandruccio,...

Improving the Diagnosis of Otitis Media (Ear Infection) in Pediatric Patients

Monday, November 29, 2021

​​Waking up in the middle of the night to a crying child suffering from an ear infection is an all too familiar event for many parents. In fact, most parents would not be surprised to learn that otitis media (ear infection) is the No. 1 cause for pediatric office visits, the No. 1 cause for antibiotic use in children, and the No. 1 cause for surgery in children. Boys Town National Research Hospita...

Unlike Any Other Physical Therapy Clinic – Introducing Boys Town’s Center for Human Performance Optimization

Monday, November 8, 2021

​The Center for Human Performance Optimization at Boys Town National Research Hospital is a place where adolescents who have a physical disability are surrounded by dedicated physical therapists, leading researchers and the most advanced motion technology and equipment to create a unique hybrid in neuroscience care.  This collaborative research style makes the center and the institute unique, not ...

The Dizzy Child

Thursday, October 14, 2021

​​​While The Dizzy Child, the title of a new paper published in the Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America, by Elizabeth Kelly, M.D., Neurotologist, Kristen Janky, Au.D., Ph.D., Clinical Audiologist and Research Scientist, and Jessie Patterson, Au.D., Ph.D., Clinical and Research Audiologist at Boys Town National Research Hospital, may sound somewhat lighthearted, up to 15% of children h...

Annual Research Project Review Showcases Collaboration

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

​We know knowledge is power and that when you collaborate with others it can lead to important insights and discoveries. That's the goal behind the External Advisory Committee at Boys Town's Center for Perception and Communication in Children.Each year, a group of Boys Town scientists present their research projects during a two-day meeting with an external advisory group that includes five member...

Three Boys Town Research Projects Receive ASHA Award

Thursday, September 23, 2021

​​Three Boys Town Research Projects Receive the Distinguished Editor's Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) To have one researcher paper recognized for this award is impressive, but we are extremely proud to announce that three publications by four Boys Town researchers have received the Editor's Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).Congr...

Cerebral Palsy: Microstructural Changes in the Spinal Cord Tied to Hand Motor Control

Monday, August 30, 2021

​While the study of brain structure and function in individuals with Cerebral Palsy (CP) is fairly common, until recently, the spinal cord has not been studied as closely due to difficulties with the spasticity caused by CP and the need to remain motionless during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Researchers at the Boys Town PoWER Laboratory have published research that ties microstructural c...

New MRI Study: Reduced Threat Responsiveness Corresponds with Aggressive Behavior

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

​​​​​​​​In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at Boys Town National Research Hospital Center for Neurobehavioral Research have linked reduced threat and reduced emotional responsiveness to recorded aggressive behavior in researched adolescents during their first three months in the Boys Town residential setting.​​Previous studies have attempted to examine relationships between brain responses ...

Researchers from Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals Visit Institute for Human Neuroscience

Monday, August 23, 2021

​​We were happy to welcome research colleagues from the Institute for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals for a tour at our Institute for Human Neuroscience on Boys Town campus. What an inspiring visit with so many smart minds in the room who work every day to advance research that improves the lives of patients, children and families. Pictured Left to...

Boys Town’s Morgan Busboom Awarded Foundation for Physical Therapy PODS I Scholarship

Monday, July 26, 2021

Morgan Busboom, PT, DPT, of the Institute for Human Neuroscience at Boys Town National Research Hospital, was recently awarded a PODS I Mildred Wood Award from the Foundation for Physical Therapy. Funding from the foundation was provided to 21 of the most promising physical therapist researchers to help these new investigators begin their research careers and complete doctoral studies. The aw...

Let the Children Talk (to Themselves) - It Helps Memory

Monday, July 19, 2021

​​​​It's the middle of your remote workday. You leave your home office, but the moment you enter the kitchen, you've completely forgotten what you wanted in the first place. You muse aloud "why did I come in here?" and proceed to talk yourself through the sequence of events that led to your arrival in the kitchen. Adults commonly use these self-talk strategies to remember and problem solve. Howeve...

Boys Town Researchers Find Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents Can Significantly Impair Quality of Life

Friday, July 2, 2021

​​​​​​​​A quality life is where our goals and aspirations flourish.  But a quality life is more challenging for adolescents to achieve if they have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and are plagued with constant worries​ about almost everything.This suffering is especially poignant for researchers at Boys Town, where 30% of the adolescents in the Family Home Program arrive with some level of gene...

Introducing a Ground-Breaking New Institute at Boys Town National Research Hospital

Monday, March 29, 2021

​​Boys Town National Research Hospital® is revolutionizing child and teen brain research at the new Institute for Human Neuroscience, which opened in March 2021. The Institute is in a brand-new 15,000+ square foot research facility specifically built for this group of researchers and their state-of-the-art equipment. As one of the most cutting-edge neuroscience research facilities in the natio...

Tony W. Wilson, Ph.D., Named Patrick E. Brookhouser Endowed Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Tony W. Wilson, Ph.D., Director of the new Institute for Human Neuroscience at Boys Town National Research Hospital, has been named the first recipient of the Patrick E. Brookhouser Endowed Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr. Wilson is nationally recognized for his work utilizing neuroimaging to investigate typical and atypical brain development and use those findings to predict long-ter...

Boys Town Leads National Research Efforts with Twice the Capacity for Major Discoveries in Pediatric Neuroscience

Saturday, March 27, 2021

​​“As the only site in the world with two next-generation MEG Neo systems, we'll have twice the capacity for major discoveries in pediatric neuroscience and neurotherapeutics and be able to directly impact the lives of children and families. Boys Town has the infrastructure and a history of doing things like this and we are excited to carry on this critical mission," said Ton...

Building a Center of Excellence in Neuroscience Research

Saturday, March 27, 2021

​​With the opening of The Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital is setting the pace for neuroscience research. Unlike an already existing research center, the faculty at the Institute for Human Neuroscience had lots of input into creating this unique new workspace. They worked with the architects to make the building fit their vision for the best way to have patien...

Physical Therapy May Hold the Key to Brain-Based Changes in Adults with Cerebral Palsy

Friday, March 26, 2021

A recent study conducted by the Power of Walking & Engineering Rehabilitation (PoWER) Laboratory, part of the Boys Town National Research Hospital® Institute for Human Neuroscience, used MEG (magnetoencephalography) imaging to study the brain activity of people with cerebral palsy to sensations applied to the leg.  “This study measures what happens as individuals move into adulthood, which is ...

Boys Town National Research Hospital & Rush University Medical Center Receive a Shared NIH Research Grant

Thursday, March 18, 2021

​Anyone who has ever spent time in a highly interactive school environment knows how noisy all that input and feedback can be.  That's why researchers Katherine Gordon, Ph.D., Research Scientist in the Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning at Boys Town National Research Hospital®, and Tina Grieco-Calub, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Scie...

Do You Run Down the Mountain or Descend? That All Depends on Your Native Language!

Thursday, March 18, 2021

​Have you ever wondered why a foreign language may sound “wrong" when you've translated it into English?  It's because that language may express certain parts of speech differently. Different groups of languages use verbs to express different aspects of motion, and the people who speak these different languages expect to hear motion described in a certain way. Samantha Emerson, Ph.D., cond...

Lockdowns Increase Insomnia and Jeopardize Mental Health

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

At the end of March 2020, more than 1.3 billion people in India entered a stringent 21-day lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sahil Bajaj, Ph.D., Director of the Multimodal Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory (MCNL) at the Center for Neurobehavioral Research at Boys Town National Research Hospital®, saw the need to quickly study how this would affect Indian residents' sleep health and how...

Remembering a Visionary, Dr. Pat Stelmachowicz

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

​​​​A leader, visionary and scholar in audiology research, Pat Stelmachowcz, Ph.D., will be remembered for her contributions to the field and their translational impact that improved the lives of so many with hearing loss.  Pat passed away in January 2021. Her husband and research colleague, Michael Gorga, Ph.D., has established the Pat Stelmachowicz Audiology/Hearing Research Endowed Fund to ...

$35,000 Research Grant Awarded to Boys Town Hospital Audiologists

Friday, February 5, 2021

A team of research and clinical audiologists at Boys Town National Research Hospital® was recently awarded a $35,000 Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration Grant from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHFoundation).The grant money is being used to improve high-frequency auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing. This test is important for identifying and measuring levels of hearing ...

Retrieval-Based and Spaced Learning: Two Strategies to Support Word Learning

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

​​Sometimes, tried-and-true teaching methods are just that – effective and for good reason. However, in the past that reason may not itself have been tested. That's why the new article: “The Advantages of Retrieval-Based and Spaced Practice: Implications for Word Learning in Clinical and Educational Contexts," is so significant.In this article, Katherine Gordon, Ph.D., Director of the Language...

Boys Town Researchers Featured in ASHA Top 10 Articles of the Year

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Journals Academy has released their top ten articles of 2020, and three publications by Boys Town researchers earned a spot on the list! “This is really an incredible honor," says Ryan McCreery, Ph.D., Director of Boys Town Research. “Having one article on this list is impressive. Having three truly speaks to the innovation, dedication and ta...

Donation Helps Boys Town National Research Hospital in Eye Tracking/Listening Research Project

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

You may have noticed that it is hard to understand what someone is saying when they are wearing a face mask. That's because in face-to-face conversations, seeing a speaker's mouth move usually helps us understand them, especially in noisy places. Understanding speech in background noise is much more challenging for children than adults, and there is variability in children's ability to use visual ...

Project INCLUDE Introduces Remote Testing Kits Due to Pandemic Constraints

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Boys Town National Research Hospital® was in the middle of research for Project INCLUDE, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), when the pandemic upended how many things were being done nationally, locally and at Boys Town.  Project INCLUDE measures language, problem solving and hearing abilities in background noise for children with Down syndrome to identify factors that contribut...

Mapping Aging Brain Networks with the Groundbreaking Atlas55+

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

​Brain atlases of various kinds have existed for decades, each mapping various areas and centers of the brain. But up until now, most of these atlases created by various researchers have used subjects in early adulthood (typically 18 to 35 years old) for their studies.Yet older individuals represent 15% of the United States population, and that segment is expected t​o continue growing significantl...

Voice of America Features Boys Town® Researcher Karla McGregor, Ph.D.

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Recently, Voice of America (VOA), the United States' largest international broadcaster, featured an article about U.S. students with disabilities being afforded reasonable accommodations and the chance to succeed thanks to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.Students as young as 3 years of age can access IEPs (individual education programs) that address a multitude of learning issues includi...

New App Measures Attention in 2 to 5-Year-Olds

Friday, November 13, 2020

​Designed with an engaging theme and graphics, the Visual Attention Processing Protocol (VAPP) application collects research data on how children between the ages of 2 and 5 process visual information in their environment.Created by Anastasia Kerr-German, Ph.D., Director of the Brain, Executive Function and Attention Research Laboratory at Boys Town®, this app measures visual attention and brain p...

Ears On An Evidence-Based Program to Improve Hearing Device Use in Children

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

​ ​For children with hearing loss, hearing devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants provide access to speech sounds that are critical to their development of spoken language. However, children must regularly wear their devices to receive the full language development benefits [1]. Ears On is a program developed and evaluated by Sophie Ambrose, Ph.D., Coordinator of the Clinical Measu...

Researchers and Kids Work Together to Create Scientific Article on Hearing Research

Friday, October 9, 2020

Imagine if kids were offered the opportunity to give input and ask questions for a scientific journal. Boys Town researchers Angela AuBuchon, Ph.D., and Ryan McCreery, Ph.D., Director of Research, are doing just that in a similar manner with the publication Frontiers for Young Minds, which offers a unique approach to do this in a scientific journal that is aimed at young audiences. What makes it r...

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