Understanding the role of pitch cues in multi-speaker environments

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Existing basic research in sound segregation and hearing technology focus on the use of spatial cues to guide auditory attention. Therefore, pitch cues are a potentially rich and unexplored field where significant improvements in speech intelligibility could be found.My hypotheses are as follows:Pitch cues contribute significantly to the degradation of hearing in a multi-talker listening environment performance experienced by patients during ageing and hearing lossRestoring access to these pitch cues will improve speech-in-noise performanceMy proposed DPhil research is an interdisciplinary project aiming to better understand the neural mechanisms underpinning how speakers in multi-speaker environments are understood by patients with hearing loss and explore potential interventions to improve this.I propose the following broad areas of investigation:1. Characterise the relative importance of pitch cues in hearing speech in multi-speaker environments2. Characterise the neurophysiological correlates of speech understanding in multi-speaker environments3. Develop clinically useful diagnostic tests of speech in noise performance4. Explore using targeted pitch cues to improve speech intelligibility in a multi-speaker environmentThe project falls within the remit of healthcare technologies. The overall aim of the project is to determine the importance of pitch cues in multi-speaker environments in order to improve hearing loss interventions. This includes predict performance benefit gained from hearing device use in noisy environments. As such, the research will underpin the optimisation of hearing devices and therefore falls within the EPSRC remit.