Perceptual adaptation to realistic acoustic environments

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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.