Enriched speech input to promote language development in children with sensorineural hearing loss: Neural and behavioral evidence

丰富的语音输入促进感音神经性听力损失儿童的语言发展：神经和行为证据

• 批准号: 536577040
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Claudia Männel
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Klinik für Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/536577040?language=en
• 关键词: Enriched; speech; input; promote; language

Children with sensorineural hearing loss experience problems in understanding and producing speech sounds. These linguistic difficulties occur despite early diagnosis and improved hearing-device treatment and predominantly affect speech sounds within the high-acoustic frequency (HAF) range (>2 kHz), such as consonants /s/, /t/, and /f/. As these consonants distinguish words and, in German, also mark morpho-syntactic dependencies, these problems have detrimental effects on children’s word and morpho-syntactic learning. Our research aims at investigating whether 1- to 3-year-old children with sensorineural hearing loss benefit in their deficient speech perception when exposed to enriched speech. In three electrophysiological (EEG) experiments and two eye-tracking experiments, we test the hypothesis that perception is boosted for speech that contains additional acoustic cues to HAF consonants. In the first EEG experiment, children listen to naturalistic infant-directed speech in which speech sounds are highlighted, as caregivers typically speak slower and with stronger pitch modulations to young children. In the other EEG and eye-tracking experiments, consonant-amplification in infant-directed speech is used as specific acoustic enrichment, where HAF consonants are additionally amplified in their high-frequency range. Perceptual improvement from both kinds of enriched speech versus adult-directed speech (without enrichment) will be quantified by state-of-the-art analysis techniques: In addition to traditional event-related analyses of brain responses, we will analyze speech-brain coherence, specifically neural tracking at the speech-sound rate, across speech types with and without enrichment. Using multivariate-temporal response functions, we will compare brain responses to high versus low-frequency consonants under different enrichment conditions. Moreover, analyses of pupil dilation and preferential looking will test for children’s potential benefit from enriched speech in their consonant discrimination. Neural and behavioral correlates of HAF consonant perception will be longitudinally (after 12 months) related to children’s consonant articulation in a speech elicitation task. Finally, we will employ questionnaires and behavioral tests to study whether the proposed perceptual benefit from enriched speech is mediated by children’s overall language skills (e.g., vocabulary and grammar knowledge) and factors in their learning environment (e.g., caregiver-speech modifications and music-exposure at home). EEG and eye-tracking measures of children with sensorineural hearing loss will be compared to children with normal hearing, matched in age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Our research provides a first step in evaluating the potential impact of enriched speech in ameliorating speech perception deficits in children with sensorineural hearing loss, and may inform low-cost family-centered interventions to stimulate these children’s language development.

患有感音神经性听力损失的儿童在理解和发出语音方面会遇到问题。尽管进行了早期诊断并改进了听力设备治疗，但这些语言困难仍然存在，并且主要影响高声频率 (HAF) 范围（>2 kHz）内的语音，例如辅音 /s/、/t/ 和 /f/。由于这些辅音区分单词，并且在德语中还标记形态句法依赖性，因此这些问题对儿童的单词和形态句法学习产生有害影响。我们的研究旨在调查 1 至 3 岁患有感音神经性听力损失的儿童在接触丰富的言语时是否会改善其言语感知缺陷。在三个电生理学 (EEG) 实验和两个眼球追踪实验中，我们测试了这样的假设：包含 HAF 辅音附加声学线索的语音的感知会增强。在第一个脑电图实验中，孩子们聆听自然的婴儿定向语音，其中语音被突出显示，因为护理人员通常对幼儿说话速度较慢且音调调制更强。在其他脑电图和眼动追踪实验中，婴儿定向语音中的辅音放大被用作特定的声学富集，其中 HAF 辅音在其高频范围内被额外放大。丰富语音与成人定向语音（无丰富）的感知改善将通过最先进的分析技术进行量化：除了传统的大脑反应事件相关分析之外，我们还将分析语音-大脑连贯性，特别是在语音音速下的神经跟踪，包括有和没有丰富的语音类型。使用多元时间响应函数，我们将比较不同富集条件下大脑对高频辅音和低频辅音的反应。此外，对瞳孔扩张和优先观看的分析将测试儿童在辅音辨别方面从丰富的言语中获得的潜在益处。 HAF 辅音感知的神经和行为相关性将与儿童在言语启发任务中的辅音发音纵向（12 个月后）相关。最后，我们将采用问卷和行为测试来研究丰富言语所带来的感知益处是否是由儿童的整体语言技能（例如词汇和语法知识）和学习环境中的因素（例如看护者的言语修改和家里的音乐接触）调节的。感音神经性听力损失儿童的脑电图和眼动追踪测量结果将与年龄、性别和社会经济地位相匹配的听力正常儿童进行比较。我们的研究为评估丰富言语对改善感音神经性听力损失儿童言语感知缺陷的潜在影响提供了第一步，并可能为以家庭为中心的低成本干预措施刺激这些儿童的语言发展提供信息。