dr. Martijn Agterberg

Over Martijn Agterberg

Professional Experience:

Neuropsychologist, Audiologist, Neuroscientist

Overview research career

Born on august 8th in 1975. Martijn studied Medicine and Psychology at the University of Utrecht and developed an interest in learning, memory and plasticity. In 2003 Martijn received a research grant to study plasticity of the auditory system in the laboratory of Prof. Merzenich at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

In 2009 the PHD project ‘Neurotrophic treatment of the degenerating auditory nerve’ was finished under supervision of Prof. Wiegant. In the same year he was appointed as Post-doc in the group of Prof. Van Opstal at the department Biophysics (Radboud University), and as researcher in the group of Prof. Snik at the department Otolaryngology (Radboudumc). In Nijmegen, he ‘bridged the gap’ between fundamental research and applied research and demonstrated that hearing impaired patients, adults and children, could be measured in advanced research facility. The work was presented on Dutch television (Pavlov, NTR NPO3).

In 2010 a study demonstrating the advantage of having large ears was published. The Dutch newspaper NRC wrote about the interesting result that older adults with larger ears demonstrated improved sound localization abilities for stimuli with a limited bandwidth compared to children and young adults. So, not everything becomes worse when getting older!

In 2014 Martijn received funding for the idea to build a sound localization setup in a mobile trailer (Wasmann et al., 2020). He started his own company and is now providing this sophisticated setup to other clinics in order to obtain international standardization on how to measure sound localization.

In 2018 Martijn was appointed associate professor and audiologist at the ENT department at the Radboudumc. In 2022 he was appointed assistant professor at the ENT department in the UMC-Utrecht.As an audiologist he performed the intra-operation measurements in patients receiving the newest generation hearing implants (Codacs, VSB, Carina, Osia).

In 2019 Martijn received the Dutch NWO Open Mind grant for the idea to study the dynamic ears of bees. Because of the Corona situation bees were trained in a mobile setup. The research was described in the Dutch daily newspaper ‘Trouw’, in the glossy ‘QUEST’ nr. 11, and presented on the Dutch radio (FOCUS, NPO1), and on the Dutch television (Atlas, NPO2).

●     Article in the daily newspaper Trouw

Helpt de hommel ons aan een beter gehoorimplantaat? | Trouw

●     The glossy Quest published an article (Quest nr. 11)

●     Nu.nl wrote an article about our work.

●     Interview NPO1.

In 2021 Martijn received a NOW grant to perform a technical and commercial feasibility study for a new implant with a better noise reduction based on superior directional microphones. He founded the company BeephoniX in 2023.

His recent work is focusing on the optimal treatment of unilateral and or bilateral hearing loss and he is advocating the importance of a multidisciplinary team for the treatment of hearing disorders.

Bijen als inspiratiebron voor betere gehoorimplantaten | Radboud Universiteit (ru.nl)

Help slechthorende kinderen, met richtingsgevoelig implan... (voorradboudfonds.nl)