Kelly Whiteford, PhD

 Kelly L. Whiteford
Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
Medical School
[email protected]
Available to mentor
Kelly Whiteford, PhD
Kelly L. Whiteford
Assistant Professor
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  • Center Memberships
  • Recent Publications

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    • About

    Dr. Kelly Whiteford received a BA in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley in 2012. After graduating, she worked in the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley as a lab manager studying auditory and visual perception. She received her PhD in Psychology at the University of Minnesota in the area of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, and she continued in Minnesota as a postdoctoral associate. In 2021, she received an early-career R21 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. She remained at the University of Minnesota as a research associate before joining the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor.

    Links
    • Whiteford Lab

    Qualifications
    • PhD
      University of Minnesota, Psychology, Minneapolis, MN, United States
      2013 - 2018
    • BA
      UC Berkeley, Cognitive Science, Berkeley, CA, United States
      2008 - 2012

    Center Memberships
    • Center Member
      Kresge Hearing Research Institute
    • Center Member
      Frankel Institute for Heart and Brain Health

    Recent Publications

     See All Publications
    • Journal Article
      Musical training does not enhance neural sound encoding at early stages of the auditory system: A large-scale multisite investigation.
      Whiteford KL, Baltzell LS, Chiu M, Cooper JK, Faucher S, Goh PY, Hagedorn A, Irsik VC, Irvine A, Lim S-J, Mesik J, Mesquita B, Oakes B, Rajappa N, Roverud E, Schrlau AE, Van Hedger SC, Bharadwaj HM, Johnsrude IS, Kidd G, Luebke AE, Maddox RK, Marvin EW, Perrachione TK, Shinn-Cunningham BG, Oxenham AJ. bioRxiv, 2024 Sep 4; DOI:10.1101/2024.09.02.610856
      PMID: PMC11398345
    • Journal Article
      Sensitivity to Frequency Modulation is Limited Centrally
      Whiteford KL, Oxenham AJ. Journal of Neuroscience, 2023 May 17; 43 (20): 3687 - 3695. DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0995-22.2023
      PMID: 37028932
    • Journal Article
      The role of cochlear place coding in the perception of frequency modulation
      Whiteford KL, Kreft HA, Oxenham AJ. Elife, 2020 Sep 1; 9: 1 - 64. DOI:10.7554/ELIFE.58468
      PMID: 32996463
    • Journal Article
      Learning for pitch and melody discrimination in congenital amusia
      Whiteford KL, Oxenham AJ. Cortex, 2018 Jun 1; 103: 164 - 178. DOI:10.1016/j.cortex.2018.03.012
      PMID: 29655041
    • Journal Article
      Assessing the Role of Place and Timing Cues in Coding Frequency and Amplitude Modulation as a Function of Age
      Whiteford KL, Kreft HA, Oxenham AJ. JARO Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 2017 Aug 1; 18 (4): 619 - 633. DOI:10.1007/s10162-017-0624-x
      PMID: 28429126
    • Journal Article
      Music Ensemble: a large dataset on musicianship, cognition, and personality in musicians and nonmusicians.
      Talamini F, Grassi M, Altoè G, Brattico E, Caclin A, Carretti B, Drai-Zerbib V, Ferreri L, Gambarota F, Grahn J, Guiotto Nai Fovino L, Roccato M, Rodriguez-Fornells A, Swaminathan S, Tillmann B, Vuust P, Wilbiks J, Zentner M, Aguilar K, Aryanto CB, Assis Leite FC, Baldé AM, Başkent D, Bishop L, Bortz G, Bouwer FL, Calcus A, Carraturo G, Čerič A, Criscuolo A, Dairain L, Dalla Bella S, Daniel O, Danielsen A, de Parcevaux A-I, Dellacherie D, Detlefsen V, Endestad T, Cepero-Escribano V, Fialho JLDB, Fitzpatrick C, Fiveash A, Fortier J, Fram NR, Fullone E, Gloggengießer S, Gonzalez Sanchez L, Gordon RL, Groussard M, Habibi A, Hansen HMU, Harding EE, Hawkins K, Herff SA, Holma VP, Jakubowski K, Jol MG, Kalsi A, Kandro V, Kelo R, Kotz SA, Ladegam GS, Laeng B, Lee A, Lense M, Lima CF, Limmer SP, Liu CK, Martín Sánchez PDC, McEntyre L, Michael JP, Mirman D, Moltrasio J, Müllensiefen D, Najafi N, Nokkala J, Nzonlang N, Oliveira MGM, Overy K, Oxenham AJ, Passarotto E, Plasse M-E, Platel H, Poissonnier A, Provias V, Rajappa N, Ripolles P, Ritchie M, Rodrigues Menezes IR, Román-Caballero R, Roncaglia P, Rubinstein W, Sa'adullah FY-A, Saarikallio S, Sammler D, Samson S, Schellenberg EG, Serres NR, Slevc LR, Souffiane R-N, Strauch FJ, Strauss H, Tantengco N, Tervaniemi M, Thompson R, Timmers R, Toiviainen P, Trainor LJ, Tuske C, Villanueva J, von Bastian CC, Whiteford KL, Wood EA, Worschech F, Zappa A. Sci Data, 2026 Feb 18; DOI:10.1038/s41597-026-06654-0
      PMID: 41702904
    • Journal Article
      Large-scale multi-site study shows no association between musical training and early auditory neural sound encoding
      Whiteford KL, Baltzell LS, Chiu M, Cooper JK, Faucher S, Goh PY, Hagedorn A, Irsik VC, Irvine A, Lim SJ, Mesik J, Mesquita B, Oakes B, Rajappa N, Roverud E, Schrlau AE, Van Hedger SC, Bharadwaj HM, Johnsrude IS, Kidd G, Luebke AE, Maddox RK, Marvin EW, Perrachione TK, Shinn-Cunningham BG, Oxenham AJ. Nature Communications, 2025 Dec 1; 16 (1): DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-62155-5
      PMID: 40781070
    • Journal Article
      Pitch perception in school-aged children: Pure tones, resolved and unresolved harmonics
      Fung J, Whiteford KL, Mehta AH, Lau BK. Jasa Express Letters, 2025 Jan 1; 5 (1): DOI:10.1121/10.0034894

    Featured News & Stories

         up close head with headphones going on patients head seeing from back of head
    Health Lab

    Musicians do not demonstrate long-believed advantage in processing sound

    A large-scale study from the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota finds no evidence for a long-believed association between musical training and enhanced neural processing of sounds at the early stages of auditory processing.