Martin Pienkowski, PhD

Associate Professor, Osborne College of Audiology

Martin Pienkowskimpienkowski@salus.edu

Education:

  • BSc, University of Toronto (biophysics)
  • MSc, University of Toronto (biomedical acoustics)
  • PhD, University of Toronto (auditory neuroscience)
  • Postdoctoral, Karolinska Institute (auditory neuroscience)
  • Postdoctoral, University of Calgary (auditory neuroscience)

Role Salus University:

  • Osborne College of Audiology
    • Residential education
    • Basic science and clinical research
  • Pennsylvania College of Optometry
    • Residential education
  • PhD Program in Biomedicine
    • Distance education

Research Activities: 

  • I am interested in the workings of the normal and impaired auditory system.  Topics of special research interest include noise-induced hearing loss, central auditory plasticity induced by prolonged exposure to moderately loud noise, hyperacusis, tinnitus, and “auditory processing disorders”.  I use both mice and men as research subjects.

Selected Representative Publications: 

  • Pienkowski, M., Adunka, O., Lichtenhan, J. (2018). New advances in electrocochleography for clinical and basic investigation. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience (in press).
  • ​Pienkowski, M. (2018) Prolonged exposure of CBA/Ca mice to moderately loud noise can cause cochlear synaptopathy, but not tinnitus or hyperacusis as assessed with the acoustic startle reflex. Trends in Hearing 20: 1–18.
  • Pienkowski, M. (2017) On the etiology of listening difficulties in noise despite clinically normal audiograms. Ear & Hearing 38: 135–148.
  • Pienkowski, M. (2015) Music is good for your brain, but don’t blast it. Frontiers for Young Minds 3: 1–8.
  • Lau, C., Pienkowski, M., Zhang, J.W., McPherson, B., Wu, E.X. (2015) Chronic exposure to broadband noise at moderate sound pressure levels spatially shifts tone-evoked responses in the rat auditory midbrain. Neuroimage 122: 44–51.
  • Lau, C., Zhang, J.W., McPherson, B., Pienkowski, M., Wu, E.X. (2015) Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the adult rat central auditory system following long-term, passive exposure to non-traumatic acoustic noise. Neuroimage 107: 1–9.
  • Tyler, R.S., Pienkowski, M., Roncancio, E.R., Hyungjin-jun, J., Brozoski, T., Dauman, N., Coelho, C.B., Anderrson, G., Keiner, A.J., Cacace, A., Martin, N., Moore, B.C.J. (2014) A review of hyperacusis and future directions. Part I. Definitions and manifestations. American Journal of Audiology 23: 402–419.
  • Pienkowski, M., Tyler, R.S., Roncancio, E.R., Hyungjin-jun, J., Brozoski, T., Dauman, N., Coelho, C.B., Anderrson, G., Keiner, A.J., Cacace, A., Martin, N., Moore, B.C.J. (2014) A review of hyperacusis and future directions. Part II. Measurement, mechanisms, and treatment. American Journal of Audiology 23: 420–436.
  • Munguia, R., Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2013) Spontaneous firing rate changes in cat primary auditory cortex following long-term exposure to non-traumatic noise. Tinnitus without hearing loss? Neuroscience Letters 546: 46–50.
  • Pienkowski, M., Munguia, R., Eggermont, J.J. (2013) Effects of passive, moderate-level sound exposure on the mature auditory cortex: Spectral edges, spectrotemporal density, and real-world noise. Hearing Research 296: 121–130.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2012) Reversible long-term changes in auditory processing in mature auditory cortex in the absence of hearing loss induced by passive, moderate-level sound exposure. Ear and Hearing 33: 305–314.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2011) Cortical tonotopic map plasticity and behavior. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 35: 2117–2128.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2011) Sound frequency representation in primary auditory cortex is level-tolerant for low to moderate level, complex sounds. Journal of Neurophysiology 106: 1016–1027.
  • Jacob, S., Pienkowski, M., Fridberger, A. (2011) The endocochlear potential alters cochlear micromechanics. Biophysical Journal 100: 2586–2594.
  • Pienkowski, M., Munguia, R., Eggermont, J.J. (2011) Passive exposure of adult cats to bandlimited tone pip ensembles or noise leads to long-term response suppression in auditory cortex. Hearing Research 277: 117–126.
  • Pienkowski, M., Ulfendahl, M. (2011) Differential effects of salicylate, quinine and furosemide on guinea pig inner and outer hair cell function revealed by the input-output relation of the auditory brainstem response. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 22: 104–112.
  • Eggermont, J.J., Munguia, R., Pienkowski, M., Shaw, G. (2011) Comparison of LFP-based and spike-based spectro-temporal receptive fields and cross-correlation in cat primary auditory cortex. PLoS ONE 6: e20046 (16 pages).
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2010) Passive exposure of adult cats to moderate-level tone pip ensembles differentially decreases AI and AII responsiveness in the exposure frequency range. Hearing Research 268: 151–162.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2010) Nonlinear cross-frequency interactions in primary auditory cor­tex spectrotemporal receptive fields: A Wiener-Volterra analysis. Journal of Computational Neuroscience 28: 285–303.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2010) Intermittent exposure with moderate-level sound impairs central audi­tory function of mature animals without concomitant hearing loss. Hearing Research 261: 30–35.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont J.J. (2009) Long-term, partially-reversible reorganization of fre­quency tuning in mature cat primary auditory cortex can be induced by passive exposure to moder­ate-level sounds. Hearing Research 257: 24–40.
  • Pienkowski, M., Eggermont, J.J. (2009) Effects of adaptation on spectrotemporal receptive fields in primary auditory cortex. Neuroreport 20: 1198–1203.
  • Chugh, B.P., Lerch, J.P., Yu, L.X., Pienkowski, M., Harrison, R.V., Henkelman, R.M., Sled, J.G. (2009) Meas­urement of cerebral blood volume in mouse brain regions using micro-computed tomography. Neuroimage 47: 1312–1318.
  • Pienkowski, M., Hagerman, B. (2009) Auditory intensity discrimination as a function of level-rove and tone du­ration in normal-hearing and impaired subjects: The “mid-level hump” revisited. Hearing Research 253: 107–115.
  • Pienkowski, M., Shaw, G., Eggermont, J.J. (2009) Wiener-Volterra characterization of neurons in primary auditory cortex using Poisson-distributed impulse train inputs. Journal of Neurophysiology 101: 3031–3041.
  • Noreña, A.J., Gourévitch, B., Pienkowski, M., Shaw, G., Eggermont J.J. (2008) Increasing spectrotemporal sound density reveals an octave-based organization in cat primary auditory cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 28: 8885–8896.
  • Pienkowski, M., Harrison, R.V. (2005) Tone responses in core versus belt auditory cortex in the developing chinchilla. Journal of Comparative Neurology 492: 101–109.
  • Pienkowski, M., Harrison, R.V. (2005) Tone frequency maps and receptive fields in the de­vel­op­ing chinchilla audi­tory cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology 93: 454–466.
  • James, A.L., Harrison, R.V., Pienkowski, M., Dajani, H.R., Mount, R.J. (2005) Dy­namics of real time DPOAE con­tralateral suppression in chinchillas and humans. Interna­tional Jour­nal of Audiology 44: 118–129.