About

Adrian KC Lee is a Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington, where he joined the faculty in 2011. He holds an ScD from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology and a BEng in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales. His research focuses on developing multimodal imaging techniques to investigate the cortical network involved in auditory scene analysis and attention. He designs novel behavioral paradigms that bridge psychoacoustics and neuroimaging research to better understand auditory processing. Dr. Lee's work also explores how the brain perceives and processes sound, with particular interest in auditory attention and neuroimaging. In 2026, he was selected as a fellow in the Provost's Academy, collaborating across disciplines to advance AI literacy at UW and explore ethical, thoughtful engagement with AI in research, teaching, and society.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Pediatrics
• Clinical psychology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Reframing Serendipity in the Current Climate

  Acoustics Today · 2026-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The relationship between intellectual ability and auditory multitalker speech perception in neurodivergent individuals

  PLoS ONE · 2025-09-24 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The ability to selectively attend to one talker in the presence of competing talkers is crucial to communication in noisy, real-world environments. In this study, we investigated the relationship between intellectual ability and speech perception under multitalker conditions. Since neurodivergent individuals show a wide range of intellectual ability, from above average IQ to intellectual disability, intellectual ability may be an important individual characteristic that impacts multitalker speech perception, but this is not currently well understood. We tested individuals with autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and an age- and sex-matched comparison group, all with typical hearing. We found a strong positive correlation between IQ and multitalker speech perception thresholds. This demonstrates that deficits in intellectual ability, despite intact peripheral encoding of sound, are associated with difficulty listening under complex conditions for individuals with autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Future research is needed to investigate specific cognitive control mechanisms that contribute to difficulty listening under complex conditions. These findings suggest that audiological services to improve communication in real-world environments for neurodivergent individuals should be considered during clinical evaluations.

  PublisherDOI

• Synchrony perception of audiovisual speech is a reliable, yet individual construct

  Scientific Reports · 2025-05-07 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Audiovisual (AV) (a)synchrony perception, measured by a simultaneity judgment task, provides a proxy measure for the temporal binding window (TBW), the interval of time within which participants perceive individual auditory and visual events as synchronous. The TBW is a sensitive measure showing group level differences across the lifespan. However, the significance of these findings hinges on whether AV synchrony perception is characteristic to an individual and whether it is reliable across sessions. As there is little evidence to this latter assumption, this work aimed to establish test-retest reliability of the TBW. Eighteen participants completed a simultaneity judgment task, twice, on different days, where they judged whether or not the audio and video of word-length speech stimuli were presented at the same or different times. Results showed effects of task familiarity indicated by significantly faster response times observed at the second timepoint. The slope and amplitude asymptote of the TBW also increased, however no change in TBW suggests no change in sensitivity to AV (a)synchrony. The combination of high within-subject correlations (R = 0.71) and substantial intersubject variability provide strong support for the TBW as a robust measure of AV temporal perception, and suggest a conserved mechanistic underpinning within individuals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The auditory brainstem response to natural speech is not affected by selective attention

  PLoS Biology · 2025-10-06 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  The ability to pick out and attend to one sound in a noisy mixture underpins successful communication in many natural scenarios. Selective attention has been shown to drastically alter sound encoding in the cortex and has been hypothesized to modulate subcortical processing via an extensive efferent network. The body of work investigating this possibility in humans has not resulted in a clear consensus, possibly owing to limitations in the available methodologies. Here, we used new experimental tools that allowed distinct neural responses from across the auditory pathway to be simultaneously acquired from human listeners attending to the sound of one person talking while ignoring a second. Our series of experiments provide convergent evidence that selective attention does not influence sound encoding in the auditory periphery or brainstem, with an effect first appearing in the cortex. Humans' ability to focus their attention on a single sound even in the presence of many others is as remarkable as it is essential. These findings add needed clarity regarding the mechanisms that make this feat possible.

  PublisherDOI

• Integration of audiovisual speech perception: From infancy to older adults

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2025-03-01 · 2 citations

  article

  One of the most prevalent and relevant social experiences for humans - engaging in face-to-face conversations - is inherently multimodal. In the context of audiovisual (AV) speech perception, the visual cues from the speaker's face play a crucial role in language acquisition and in enhancing our comprehension of incoming auditory speech signals. Nonetheless, AV integration reflects substantial individual differences, which cannot be entirely accounted for by the information conveyed through the speech signal or the perceptual abilities of the individual. These differences illustrate changes in response to experience with auditory and visual sensory processing across the lifespan, and within a phase of life. To improve our understanding of integration of AV speech, the current work offers a perspective for understanding AV speech processing in relation to AV perception in general from a prelinguistic and a linguistic viewpoint, and by looking at AV perception through the lens of humans as Bayesian observers implementing a causal inference model. This allowed us to create a cohesive approach to look at differences and similarities of AV integration from infancy to older adulthood. Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence suggests that both prelinguistic and linguistic mechanisms exhibit distinct, yet mutually influential, effects across the lifespan within and between individuals.

  PublisherDOI

• Note on the Dual-Task Paradigm and its Use to Measure Listening Effort

  Trends in Hearing · 2024-01-01 · 9 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  People regularly communicate in complex environments, requiring them to flexibly shift their attention across multiple sources of sensory information. Increasing recruitment of the executive functions that support successful speech comprehension in these multitasking settings is thought to contribute to the sense of effort that listeners often experience. One common research method employed to quantify listening effort is the dual-task paradigm in which individuals recognize speech and concurrently perform a secondary (often visual) task. Effort is operationalized as performance decrements on the secondary task as speech processing demands increase. However, recent reviews have noted critical inconsistencies in the results of dual-task experiments, likely in part due to how and when the two tasks place demands on a common set of mental resources and how flexibly individuals can allocate their attention to them. We propose that in order to move forward to address this gap, we need to first look backward: better integrating theoretical models of resource capacity and allocation as well as of task-switching that have been historically developed in domains outside of hearing research (viz., cognitive psychology and neuroscience). With this context in mind, we describe how dual-task experiments could be designed and interpreted such that they provide better and more robust insights into the mechanisms that contribute to effortful listening.

  PublisherDOI

• Soundscape, attention and cognitive load

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2024-03-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The cocktail party problem was first coined by E Colin Cherry in 1953 and it describes the archetypal challenge of listening in a complex soundscape (e.g., multiple talkers conversing vying for your attention in a crowded restaurant). In the past two decades, the field of psychoacoustics has steadily marched towards understanding how we listen in these naturalistic environments. Many studies have focused on studying the psychological and physiological aspects of auditory scene analysis and object-based attention as well as how these processes differ in typical listeners from others with listening difficulties. In recent years, there has also been a burgeoning interest in understanding how cognitive load and listening effort affect our ease of listening in different situational contexts (e.g., talking while driving). In this talk, a brief survey of modern psychoacoustic experimental approaches will be presented in the hope to spur new collaborative research ideas with those who study soundscape.

  PublisherDOI

• Using a linear dynamic system to measure functional connectivity from M/EEG

  Journal of Neural Engineering · 2024-06-27

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Objective. Measures of functional connectivity (FC) can elucidate which cortical regions work together in order to complete a variety of behavioral tasks. This study’s primary objective was to expand a previously published model of measuring FC to include multiple subjects and several regions of interest. While FC has been more extensively investigated in vision and other sensorimotor tasks, it is not as well understood in audition. The secondary objective of this study was to investigate how auditory regions are functionally connected to other cortical regions when attention is directed to different distinct auditory stimuli. Approach. This study implements a linear dynamic system (LDS) to measure the structured time-lagged dependence across several cortical regions in order to estimate their FC during a dual-stream auditory attention task. Results. The model’s output shows consistent functionally connected regions across different listening conditions, indicative of an auditory attention network that engages regardless of endogenous switching of attention or different auditory cues being attended. Significance. The LDS implemented in this study implements a multivariate autoregression to infer FC across cortical regions during an auditory attention task. This study shows how a first-order autoregressive function can reliably measure functional connectivity from M/EEG data. Additionally, the study shows how auditory regions engage with the supramodal attention network outlined in the visual attention literature.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multi-site EEG studies in early infancy: Methods to enhance data quality

  Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · 2024-07-31 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Brain differences linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can manifest before observable symptoms. Studying these early neural precursors in larger and more diverse cohorts is crucial for advancing our understanding of developmental pathways and potentially facilitating earlier identification. EEG is an ideal tool for investigating early neural differences in ASD, given its scalability and high tolerability in infant populations. In this context, we integrated EEG into an existing multi-site MRI study of infants with a higher familial likelihood of developing ASD. This paper describes the comprehensive protocol established to collect longitudinal, high-density EEG data from infants across five sites as part of the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) Network and reports interim feasibility and data quality results. We evaluated feasibility by measuring the percentage of infants from whom we successfully collected each EEG paradigm. The quality of task-free data was assessed based on the duration of EEG recordings remaining after artifact removal. Preliminary analyses revealed low data loss, with average in-session loss rates at 4.16 % and quality control loss rates at 11.66 %. Overall, the task-free data retention rate, accounting for both in-session issues and quality control, was 84.16 %, with high consistency across sites. The insights gained from this preliminary analysis highlight key sources of data attrition and provide practical considerations to guide similar research endeavors.

  PublisherDOI

• Audiovisual Speech Perception Benefits are Stable from Preschool through Adolescence

  Multisensory Research · 2024-07-03 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The ability to leverage visual cues in speech perception - especially in noisy backgrounds - is well established from infancy to adulthood. Yet, the developmental trajectory of audiovisual benefits stays a topic of debate. The inconsistency in findings can be attributed to relatively small sample sizes or tasks that are not appropriate for given age groups. We designed an audiovisual speech perception task that was cognitively and linguistically age-appropriate from preschool to adolescence and recruited a large sample ( N = 161) of children (age 4-15). We found that even the youngest children show reliable speech perception benefits when provided with visual cues and that these benefits are consistent throughout development when auditory and visual signals match. Individual variability is explained by how the child experiences their speech-in-noise performance rather than the quality of the signal itself. This underscores the importance of visual speech for young children who are regularly in noisy environments like classrooms and playgrounds.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R00DC010196

  NIH · $679k · 2015

• Auditory Neuroscience Training Program

  NIH · $8.2M · 2002–2027

• NIH Grant K99DC010196

  NIH · $179k · 2011

• Cortical Dynamics of Auditory Attention

  NIH · $2.0M · 2013–2019

• CRCNS: Bayesian Modeling of Interacting Time Series to Discover Cortical Networks Associated with Auditory Processing Dysfunction

  NSF · $800k · 2016–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Barbara Shinn‐Cunningham

  Carnegie Mellon University

  39 shared

• Eric B. Larson

  Human Longevity (United States)

  39 shared

• Ross K. Maddox

  University of Rochester

  35 shared

• Dara S. Manoach

  33 shared

• Matti Hämäläinen

  Aalto University

  23 shared

• Kara A. Dyckman

  University of Georgia

  19 shared

• Daniel McCloy

  University of Washington

  19 shared

• Hari Bharadwaj

  18 shared

Labs

• Speech & Hearing Sciences Research LabsPI

Education

• Health Sciences and Technology, Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology

  Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

  2007

• BE, Electrical Engineering

  University of New South Wales

  2002

Awards & honors

• Elected Fellow, Acoustical Society of America (2021)
• Bloedel Center Traveling Scientist Award, University of Wash…
• Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research Young Invest…
• The Royal Society International Exchanges program award, Uni…
• Department of Defense, Air Force Office of Scientific Resear…