Career: Cognitive Auditory Systems for Processing of Complex Acoustic Scenes

职业：用于处理复杂声学场景的认知听觉系统

• 批准号: 0846112
• 负责人: Mounya Elhilali
• 金额: $ 55.64万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0846112&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Career; Cognitive; Auditory; Systems; Processing

Performance of hearing systems and speech technologies can benefit greatly from a deeper appreciation and knowledge of how the brain processes and perceives sounds. While most current systems invoke operations akin to the peripheral auditory system, they stop shy of incorporating promising capabilities of the central auditory system, most importantly its ability to adapt to the demands of an ever-changing acoustic environment. Recent physiological findings are amending existing dogmas of processing in auditory cortex; replacing conventional views of "static" processing in sensory cortex with a more "active" and malleable mapping that rapidly adapts to behavioral tasks and listening conditions. Hence, a new architecture for sound processing based on cognitive and adaptive processes promises to open a revolutionary frontier for hearing and speech technologies.The PI will conduct a five year CAREER award study aimed at developing effective algorithmic implementations to tackle challenging sound and speech processing problems in real ecological environments. This research aims at providing a rigorous framework for designing experiments that test the role and mechanisms of active and cognitive adaptation in the auditory system. This interdisciplinary effort will integrate techniques from neurophysiology, psychophysics, computational neuroscience and engineering. The planned research will focus on: (i) developing a computational model for adaptive and cognitive auditory processing using dynamic systems techniques such as adaptive and kalman filtering; (ii) furthering understanding of the role of cortical plasticity in auditory perception with a series of experiments with human subjects (using psychoacoustics and Magnetoencephalography -MEG-) aimed atexploring the neural correlates, time course and role of these adaptive processes; (iii) assessing the computational and experimental findings in a range of engineering applications; and (iv) exploring the integration of higher cortical processing capabilities in hearing prostheses.This research effort is complemented by an educational plan aimed at promoting education in the field of adaptive and cognitive audition, through the development of new undergraduate and graduate curricula, introduction of new educational and assessment tools for improving and monitoring student achievements, as well as outreach activities to attract talented individuals to the field of cognitive engineering.This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

听力系统和语音技术的性能可以大大受益于对大脑如何处理和感知声音的更深层次的理解和知识。虽然大多数当前的系统调用类似于外围听觉系统的操作，但它们不愿结合中央听觉系统的有前途的能力，最重要的是它适应不断变化的声学环境的需求的能力。最近的生理学发现正在修正现有的听觉皮层处理的教条;用一种更“主动”和可塑性更强的映射来取代传统的感觉皮层“静态”处理的观点，这种映射能够迅速适应行为任务和听觉条件。因此，一种基于认知和自适应过程的声音处理新架构有望为听觉和语音技术开辟一个革命性的前沿。PI将进行一项为期五年的CAREER奖研究，旨在开发有效的算法实现，以解决真实的生态环境中具有挑战性的声音和语音处理问题。本研究旨在提供一个严格的框架，设计实验，测试在听觉系统中的主动和认知适应的作用和机制。这项跨学科的努力将整合神经生理学，心理物理学，计算神经科学和工程技术。计划中的研究将集中于：（i）利用动态系统技术（如自适应和卡尔曼滤波）开发一个自适应和认知听觉处理的计算模型;（ii）以人类为对象，进行一系列实验，进一步了解皮层可塑性在听觉感知中的作用（使用心理声学和脑磁图-MEG-）旨在探索这些适应过程的神经相关性，时间过程和作用;（iii）评估一系列工程应用的计算和实验结果;以及（iv）探索在听力假体中整合更高的皮层处理能力。这项研究工作得到了一项旨在促进适应性和认知听力领域教育的教育计划的补充，通过开发新的本科生和研究生课程，引入新的教育和评估工具，以提高和监测学生的成绩，以及推广活动，以吸引有才华的个人到认知工程领域。该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。