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

项目总结 老年人，即使是听力相对正常的人，在背景中识别语言也有困难 噪音。因此，老年人通常很难进行正常的对话，因此 体验降低的生活质量。为了充分补救此类沟通障碍，我们 需要了解影响老年人沟通的外周听觉系统以外的因素。 特别是，抑制控制，即抑制无关信息的能力，可能会帮助听者忽视 背景噪声并通过抑制发音相似但不恰当来促进目标单词的识别 另类选择。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)描述支持老年人在噪声中进行语音识别的神经机制 抑制控制能力和2)驱动抑制控制系统来评估其对时刻到时间的直接影响 瞬间单词识别。该项目将为老年成年人的沟通康复提供信息 通过研究抑制控制如何有助于理解噪声中的语音。 这项建议旨在确定抑制性药物的可用性和即时招募 控制会影响老年人在噪音中的语音识别。刺激性竞争将被用来诱导 高抑制性对照与低抑制性对照在老年人中的应用 在随后的试验中使用功能磁共振成像进行语音识别的神经系统。利用冲突现象 适应，其中相互竞争的信息导致抑制控制和促进的招募 在后续试验中的表现，该项目将确定在多大程度上体验视听 冲突会增加正确的单词识别率。此外，通过比较成年人的表现和神经活动， 在高抑制性对照和低抑制性对照下，本研究将调查减少抑制性控制的程度 会导致与年龄相关的语言理解能力下降。 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 老年人的认可度。预计结果将确定新的方法来加强沟通和 确定哪些人将从听力损失的治疗中获益最多，哪些人可能需要抑制 对照训练作为提高言语理解能力的干预措施。

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.