SPEECH PERCEPTION UNDER NONOPTIMAL CONDITIONS IN AGING

描述：（改编自申请人的摘要。）减值 在困难的听力条件下理解对话的能力， 例如在高度混响的房间中或在几个人 人们同时说话，影响了很大一部分人， 老年人。 这种损害可能在严重程度上有所不同，但只有在 只有极少数情况下，它可以克服使用目前可用的 假肢装置 减轻这种损害的尝试已经 阻碍的事实，既不是确切的特点， 完整的过程中的年轻人，也不是其故障的原因， 现在，我们已经很好地理解了。 拟议中的研究是旨在 调查老年人和年轻人的能力， 在非最佳收听条件下理解语音，即， 语音目标与同时进行的语音目标的感知分离 无关的“噪音”。 本研究有两个主要目的：（1） 调查，在老年人和年轻的听众，知觉 处理（特别是空间分辨率和时间分辨率） 波动），同时在分离中发挥作用 提出相关和不相关的听觉信号;（2）研究 一群老年人在五年内，为了 检测分离能力的初始或逐渐退化 同时信号，并确定其相关性， 恶化 这些目标将通过对选定的老年人群体进行测试来实现 和年轻人进行标准和非标准听力测试 以及心理生理测试。 空间听觉将被评估 在一个模拟的自由场。 多维听觉性能 将通过主成分定义受试者的概况 分析和其他多元统计方法。 这项研究的主要科学意义在于， 将提供一个更精确的定义听觉时间和 允许语音感知分离的空间过程 和背景噪音，还将识别精确的听觉过程， 受老化影响。 该研究的临床意义在于， 将建立一个听觉能力的多维数据库， 在具有轻度至中度感音神经性听力的老年人中 损失，并可能识别听觉过程，如果受损，将 有助于预测在低噪音条件下， 非最佳听力条件。 这项工作将对A 老年人语言交流的广泛障碍。

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted From The Applicant's Abstract.) Impairment of the ability to understand conversation under difficult listening conditions, such as in highly reverberant rooms or in gatherings where several persons are talking simultaneously, affects a substantial portion of elderly individuals. This impairment may vary in severity, but only in very few cases can it be overcome by the use of currently available prosthetic devices. Attempts to alleviate this impairment have been impeded by the fact that neither the precise characteristics of the intact process in the young, nor the causes of its breakdown in the old, are currently well understood. The proposed research represents a continuation of work aimed at investigating the ability of both elderly and young individuals to understand speech under non-optimal listening conditions, i.e., perceptual separation of a speech target from simultaneously ongoing irrelevant "noise". The research has two main objectives: (1) to investigate, in elderly and in young listeners, the perceptual processes (in particular, spatial resolution and resolution of temporal fluctuations) which play a role in the separation of simultaneously presented relevant and irrelevant auditory signals; and (2) to study a group of elderly individuals over a five year period, in order to detect initial or progressive deterioration of the ability to separate simultaneous signals and to determine the correlates of this deterioration. These objectives will be achieved by testing selected groups of elderly and young individuals on standard and non-standard audiological tests as well as psychophysical tests. Spatial hearing will be assessed in a simulated free field. Multidimensional auditory performance profiles of subjects will be defined through principal component analysis and other multivariate statistical methods. The major scientific significance of the proposed study is that it will provide a more precise definition of auditory temporal and spatial processes that allow for the perceptual separation of speech and background noise and will also identify precise auditory processes affected by aging. The clinical significance of the study is that it will establish a multidimensional data base of auditory capabilities in elderly individuals with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss, and may identify auditory processes which, if impaired, will help predict impending deterioration of speech understanding under non-optimal listening conditions. This work will have an impact on a wide-spread impairment of verbal communication in the elderly.