Understanding cognitive and neurobiological factors of age-related speech recognition declines

项目摘要 老年人，即使是那些听力相对正常的人，也难以识别背景中的语音 噪声因此，老年人往往难以进行正常的对话， 生活质量下降。为了充分弥补这种沟通障碍，我们 需要了解影响老年人交流的外围听觉系统以外的因素。 特别是，抑制控制，抑制无关信息的能力，可以帮助听者忽略 背景噪音，并通过抑制听起来相似但不合适的声音来促进目标词的识别 替代品.这个项目的目标是更好地理解抑制控制在语音识别中的作用 通过1）描绘支持老年人在噪声中语音识别的神经机制， 抑制控制能力和2）驱动抑制控制系统，以评估其对瞬时的直接影响， 瞬间单词识别该项目将告知老年人的沟通康复 通过研究抑制控制如何有助于理解噪声中的语音来研究人类。 这项建议旨在确定如何可用性和即时招聘的抑制 控制影响老年人在噪音中的语音识别。刺激竞争将被用来诱导 抑制控制在老年人与高与低抑制控制，以表征支持 神经系统的语音识别在随后的试验使用功能磁共振成像。利用冲突现象 适应，其中竞争信息导致抑制控制的招募和增强 该项目将确定在多大程度上体验视听 冲突增加了正确的单词识别。此外，通过比较成年人的表现和神经活动， 通过高与低抑制控制，本研究将调查降低抑制控制的程度， 会导致与年龄相关的言语理解能力下降。 这项研究的结果将促进我们对抑制控制如何支持言语的理解 老年人的认知。研究结果有望确定新的方法，以加强沟通， 确定哪些人将从听力损失治疗中受益最大，哪些人可能需要抑制性治疗， 控制训练作为一种干预措施，以提高言语理解能力。

PROJECT SUMMARY Older adults, even those with relatively normal hearing, have trouble recognizing speech in background noise. Consequently, older adults often have difficulty engaging in normal conversations and therefore experience a diminished quality of life. In order to adequately remedy such communication impairments, we need to understand factors beyond the peripheral auditory system that impact communication in older adults. In particular, inhibitory control, the ability to suppress irrelevant information, may help the listener ignore background noise and facilitate identification of a target word by inhibiting similar-sounding but inappropriate alternatives. The goal of this project is to better understand the role of inhibitory control in speech recognition by 1) delineating the neural mechanisms that support speech recognition in noise for older adults with varying inhibitory control abilities and 2) driving the inhibitory control system to assess its direct impact on moment-to- moment word recognition. This project will inform the rehabilitation of communication in the aging adult population by investigating how inhibitory control contributes to understanding speech in noise. This proposal aims to determine how the availability and moment-to-moment recruitment of inhibitory control affects speech recognition in noise among older adults. Stimulus competition will be used to induce inhibitory control in older adults with high versus low inhibitory control in order to characterize the support of neural systems for speech recognition on a subsequent trial using fMRI. Using the phenomenon of conflict adaptation, wherein competing information leads to the recruitment of inhibitory control and boosts performance on subsequent trials, this project will determine the extent to which experiencing audiovisual conflict increases correct word identification. Moreover, by comparing performance and neural activity in adults with high versus low inhibitory control, this study will investigate the extent to which reduced inhibitory control contributes to age-related declines in speech comprehension. The results of this research will advance our understanding of how inhibitory control supports speech recognition in older adults. The results are expected to identify novel methods to enhance communication and identify individuals who will most benefit from treatments for hearing loss and who may require inhibitory control training as an intervention to improve speech comprehension.