Faculty

Steven M. Barlow

Professor
Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders
Lawrence Campus

Phone: (785) 864-0632 (office)
Phone: (785) 864-1196 (lab)
FAX: (785) 864-4403 (lab)

smbarlow@ku.edu

B.S., 1976, University of Wisconsin
M.S., 1980, University of Wisconsin
Ph.D., 1984, University of Wisconsin

Director, Communication Neuroscience Laboratories
Director, Speech Aerodynamics and Voice Laboratory

Research

Professor Barlow and his research group have been studying the neural mechanisms of sensorimotor integration and motor control among orofacial and vocal tract structures in infants, children, and adults. Premature infants at-risk for brain damage are the focus of a major NIH project designed to explore activity-dependent mechanisms of neural plasticity using controlled mechanosensory inputs. Similar experimental issues of brain plasticity are being explored in the rat. In another line of study, electrophysiological and mechanosensory psychophysical experiments are underway to explore the effects of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulator implants on limb and vocal tract motor control in individuals with advanced forms of Parkinson's disease.

Selected Publications

All of the following won Editor Journal awards.

Stumm S, Barlow SM, Estep M, Lee J, Cannon S, Gagnon K, Carlson J, Finan D. (2008). The relation between respiratory distress syndrome and the fine structure of the non-nutritive suck in preterm infants. J Neonatal Nursing, 14(1), 9-16.

Estep M, Barlow SM, Vantipalli R, Lee J, Finan D. (2008). Non-nutritive suck burst parametrics in preterm infants with RDS and oral feeding complications. J Neonatal Nursing, 14(1), 28-34.

Popescu EA, Popescu M, Wang J, Barlow SM, Gustafson KM. (2008). Non-nutritive sucking recorded in utero via fetal magnetography. Physiological Measurement, 29, 127-139.

Zimmerman E, Barlow SM. (2008). Pacifier stiffness alters the dynamics of the suck central pattern generator. J Neonatal Nursing, 14(3), 79-86.