Perceptual adaptation to realistic acoustic environments

对现实声学环境的感知适应

• 批准号: 6553064
• 负责人: PAVEL A ZAHORIK
• 金额: $ 7.28万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-08-01 至 2003-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6553064
• 关键词: adult human (21+); auditory discrimination; auditory feedback; auditory stimulus; binaural hearing; clinical research; environmental adaptation; human subject; sound; sound perception; speech recognition

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In everyday situations, successful sound localization and communication require that sources of sound be perceptually segregated from the acoustic contributions of the environment. Recent results have demonstrated that aspects of the environment's acoustics become less salient with increased exposure, which suggests a form of perceptual adaptation. The goal of this project is to understand how the processes subserving human auditory perception adapt to changes in environmental acoustics, and in particular how this adaptation may facilitate sound localization and communication. The project has four specific aims: two scientific and two methodological. The scientific aims will conduct preliminary research seeking to extend current theories as to how the brain interprets and often suppresses the contributions of single echoes to more realistic acoustic situations with multiple echoes and reverberation. Of particular interest is the adaptive nature of echo suppression, which is thought to reflect the role of more centralized brain processes. Experiments will examine listeners' abilities to both locate sounds in space and to comprehend speech under realistic stimulus conditions that will elicit adaptive suppression of environmental acoustic properties. The methodological aims of the project will enable the scientific aims, by validating new virtual methods of stimulus control that allow realistic acoustical simulation of room environments, and by developing new response techniques. Because effects of environmental acoustics, such as echoes and reverberation, often pose significant problems for sound localization and communication in individuals with hearing loss, a complete understanding of these adaptive suppression effects will lead to improvements in both assistive technologies (design of binaural hearing aids and prosthetic devices) and acoustical design of listening environments.

描述（由申请人提供）：在日常情况下，成功的声音定位和通信要求声源在感知上与环境的声学贡献分离。最近的研究结果表明，随着暴露的增加，环境声学的各个方面变得不那么突出，这表明了一种形式的感知适应。该项目的目标是了解人类听觉感知的过程如何适应环境声学的变化，特别是这种适应如何促进声音定位和通信。该项目有四个具体目标：两个科学目标和两个方法目标。科学目标将进行初步研究，寻求将当前的理论扩展到大脑如何解释并经常抑制单个回声对具有多个回声和混响的更现实的声学情况的贡献。特别令人感兴趣的是回声抑制的自适应性质，这被认为反映了更集中的大脑过程的作用。实验将检查听者的能力，既定位在空间中的声音，并在现实的刺激条件下，将引起环境声学特性的自适应抑制理解语音。该项目的方法目标将通过验证新的虚拟刺激控制方法来实现科学目标，这些方法允许室内环境的逼真声学模拟，并开发新的响应技术。由于环境声学的影响，如回声和混响，往往会对听力损失患者的声音定位和沟通造成重大问题，因此对这些自适应抑制效应的全面了解将有助于改善辅助技术（双耳助听器和假体设备的设计）和听力环境的声学设计。