Neural timing is linked to speech perception in noise.
Neural timing is linked to speech perception in noise.
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.0107-10.2010
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发表时间：
2010-04-07
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Kraus N
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Anderson S;Skoe E;Chandrasekaran B;Kraus N
理解背景噪音中的言语对每个听者来说都是一个挑战，包括那些外围听力正常的听者。这种困难部分是由于噪声对神经同步的破坏性影响，导致电生理反应所反映的皮层和皮层下水平的言语表征退化。这些问题在临床人群中尤其明显，比如有学习障碍的儿童。鉴于噪音对诱发反应的既定影响，我们假设在噪音中聆听问题与脑干水平上时间信息处理的退化有关。参与者（66名8至14岁的儿童，22名女性）根据他们在噪音中语音感知（SIN）和阅读的临床测试中的表现被分成几组。我们比较了在有和没有竞争的多语者牙牙学语的情况下，最高和最低的SIN组和阅读组的脑干对语音音节的反应。在安静条件下，各组之间的神经反应时间相等。然而，在噪音中，相对于顶部组，底部组表现出更大的神经延迟。群体特定的时间延迟只发生在对易受噪声影响的形成峰过渡的反应中，而不是对刺激中更感知强健的稳态部分的反应。这些结果表明，神经定时受到背景噪音的干扰，而在具有挑战性的听力条件下，更大的干扰与无法感知语言有关。
Understanding speech in background noise is challenging for every listener, including those with normal peripheral hearing. This difficulty is due in part to the disruptive effects of noise on neural synchrony, resulting in degraded representation of speech at cortical and subcortical levels as reflected by electrophysiological responses. These problems are especially pronounced in clinical populations such as children with learning impairments. Given the established effects of noise on evoked responses, we hypothesized that listening-in-noise problems are associated with degraded processing of timing information at the brainstem level. Participants (66 children, ages 8 to 14 years, 22 females) were divided into groups based on their performance on clinical measures of speech-in-noise perception (SIN) and reading. We compared brainstem responses to speech syllables between top and bottom SIN and reading groups in the presence and absence of competing multi-talker babble. In the quiet condition, neural response timing was equivalent between groups. In noise, however, the bottom groups exhibited greater neural delays relative to the top groups. Group-specific timing delays occurred exclusively in response to the noise-vulnerable formant transition, not to the more perceptually-robust, steady-state portion of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that neural timing is disrupted by background noise and that greater disruptions are associated with the inability to perceive speech in challenging listening conditions.