Development and plasticity in normal and impaired ears

描述(由申请人提供)：长期目标是更好地了解使我们能够在背景噪声中听到声音的听觉过程，以及早期听力损失对这些过程的影响。目标1将调查这样一种假设，即儿童比成年人需要更多的时间细节来进行语音识别。目的还将调查感觉神经性听力损失对听力受损儿童在噪声中处理语音的影响。这些研究将评估听力受损儿童可能处于特别不利地位的假设，因为言语感知可能不仅受到听力损失因素的阻碍，还可能受到与有限的言语/语言经验有关的因素的影响。目标2和目标3分别研究单耳和双耳的时间分辨率。目的2研究儿童单耳时间分辨能力的发展。这项工作将检验这样一种假设，即由于随着时间的推移，刺激信息的加权效率低下，儿童可能在时间加工过程中表现出一般的发育缺陷。目的3研究双耳频谱分辨率(宽的双耳临界频带)完全由以信号频率为中心的左、右听滤波器的输出来计算的可能性。一个关键的假设是，随着噪声带宽的增加，双耳时间处理的限制削弱了双耳的敏锐度，并且越来越大的间隔的频谱分量之间的相互作用影响了与双耳不同提示相关的刺激包络和变化率。一系列实验将允许我们在这一假说和当前流行的假说之间进行检验，该假说认为宽的二进制临界频带是跨通道线索的可用性随着掩蔽带宽的增加而变化的结果。心理声学研究将使用标准的自适应测试技术，语音将使用自适应和固定块方法的组合。该项目的所有阶段都将包括年龄匹配的对照听众。数据将使用方差分析和相关程序进行分析。这项拟议的工作涉及公共健康的两个方面：1)听力损失研究的数据将提供有关早期听力损失对言语感知发展的影响的信息；2)听力正常的儿童和成人的听力能力研究将提供有关人类在噪音中听到信号的能力的信息，噪声是听力损失患者最常见的问题。该项目与公共健康直接相关，因为它调查感觉性-神经性听力损失儿童可能存在的听力残疾形式。该项目还研究了听力过程，这是在背景噪音中听到信号的能力的基础。这与公共健康有关，因为在背景噪音中听力不佳是感觉神经性听力损失患者最常见的抱怨。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term aim is a better understanding of the auditory processes that allow us to hear in background noise, and the effect of early hearing loss on those processes. Aim 1 will investigate the hypothesis that children require a greater level of temporal detail for speech identification than adults. The aim will also investigate the effect of sensori-neural hearing loss on the processing of speech in noise by hearing-impaired children. These studies will evaluate the hypothesis that hearing-impaired children may be at particular disadvantage because speech perception may be impeded not only by hearing loss factors, but also by factors related to limited speech/language experience. Aims 2 and 3 investigate monaural and binaural temporal resolution, respectively. Aim 2 will investigate the development of monaural temporal resolution in children. This work will test the hypothesis that children may exhibit a general developmental deficit in temporal processing due to inefficient weighting of stimulus information over time. Aim 3 investigates the possibility that binaural spectral resolution (the wide binaural critical band) can be acounted entirely in terms of the outputs of the left and right auditory filters centered on the signal frequency. A key hypothesis is that limitations on binaural temporal processing blunt binaural acuity as the noise bandwidth increases and interactions among increasingly widely spaced spectral components influence the stimulus envelope and the rate of change associated with binaural difference cues. A series of experiments is proposed that will allow us to test between this hypothesis and the currently popular hypothesis that the wide binarual critical band results from changes in the availability of across-channel cues with increases in masker bandwidth. Psychoacoustic studies will use standard, adaptive testing techniques, and speech will use a combination of adaptive and fixed block methods. All phases of the project will include age-matched control listeners. Data will be analyzed using analysis of variance and correlation procedures. There are two ways in which the proposed work relates to public health: 1) the data from the studies on hearing loss will provide information about the effect of early hearing loss on the development of speech perception; 2) the studies on hearing abilities in normal-hearing children and adults will provide information about human abilities to hear signals in noise, the most common problem experienced by patients having hearing losses.This project is directly relevant to public health in that it investigates possible forms of hearing disability in children who have sensori-neural hearing loss. The project also investigates hearing processes that underlie the ability to hear signals in background noise. This is relevant to public health because poor hearing in background noise is the most common complaint of patients with sensori-neural hearing loss.