Mitchell Day

Mitchell Day is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Ohio University's College of Arts and Sciences. He is based in the Life Sciences Building and is a member of the Quantitative Biology Institute. His research integrates neurophysiology, psychophysics, and computational modeling to study how the brain processes auditory information, particularly sound localization and binaural hearing.

• Ph.D., Neural Science, New York University
• B.S., Physics and Mathematics, University of Iowa

Dr. Day's research focuses on sensory coding, particularly how neurons in the auditory system encode spatial information through spike trains. His lab investigates binaural hearing, which allows humans and animals to localize sounds and separate sources in complex environments. Using neurophysiological recordings from the medial superior olive and inferior colliculus, combined with psychophysical testing and computational models, his work explores how factors like sound level, frequency, and noise-induced hearing loss affect neural coding of sound location.

His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on neural population coding, sound source separation, and the impact of hearing loss on binaural processing. Themes across his work include the robustness of auditory representations, cue integration in space perception, and the neural mechanisms underlying auditory scene analysis. His research often employs rabbit models and examines both peripheral and central auditory pathways.

Scientific contributions include key insights into:

• How hearing loss degrades sensitivity to interaural time differences
• Frequency-dependent dominance of localization cues in the inferior colliculus
• Neural decoding of concurrent sound sources
• Role of subthreshold potassium dynamics in temporal coding precision

Dr. Day teaches courses in physiology, human physiology, and neuroscience at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He leads an active research lab investigating auditory processing and trains students in electrophysiological techniques, data analysis, and computational neuroscience. While specific grants and awards are not listed, his sustained publication record in high-impact journals indicates active funding and scholarly engagement. His lab is located in Life Sciences Building 220, and he collaborates with researchers at institutions including Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear.