AUDITORY TRAINING FOR PERSONS WITH DIFFICULTY UNDERSTANDING SPEECH IN NOISE

为噪声中理解言语有困难的人提供听觉训练

• 批准号: 7519740
• 负责人: Kanae Nishi
• 金额: $ 14.51万
• 依托单位: FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS' HOME
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-06-12 至 2011-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7519740
• 关键词: 12 year old; Acoustics; Adult; Age; Agreement; Auditory; Auditory Perceptual Disorders; Auditory system; Awareness; Child; Code; Comprehension; Consensus; Daily; Data; Diagnostic; Environment; Familiarity; Frequencies; Goals; Hearing; Impairment; Individual; Language; Learning Disabilities; Life; Masks; Measures; Methods; Modeling; Modification; Neighborhoods; Noise; Perception; Performance; Persons; Phonetics; Population; Procedures; Process; Protocols documentation; Reporting; Research; Research Project Grants; Self-Help Devices; Signal Transduction; Speech; Speech Perception; Staging; Subgroup; System; Target Populations; Testing; Training; Work; base; density; design; experience; improved; novel; programs; remediation; response; skills; sound; specific language impairment

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Speech perception in adverse listening environments (e.g., noise) is more difficult than in quiet even for individuals with normal hearing. The goal of the proposed research program is to evaluate a novel assessment and training protocol for individuals who experience difficulty understanding speech in noise. The two target populations are non-native (L2) English speakers and native English speakers with various forms of auditory processing disorders (referred to generically as APD). Similar problems in noise have been reported for both groups, but previous studies have suggested several different underlying mechanisms. For L2 speakers, it has been assumed that their perceptual problems in noise are due primarily to acoustic-phonetic interference from their native language worsened by masking from noise. That is, their problem is a diminished ability to use context-independent (bottom-up) processing. To compensate, this group tends to rely heavily on the contextual information (top-down processing). The underlying mechanisms for APD group are not clearly understood. While some argue that difficulties in noise are caused by impaired auditory temporal coding, others have suggested that this group may also have poor acoustic-phonetic awareness. Although models of speech perception differ in terms of how these skills work in combination in normal native speakers, there seems to be agreement that bottom-up processing is automatic, whereas top-down processing can be more effortful and is influenced by the integrity of bottom-up processing. Thus the overuse of top-down processing to compensate for poor bottom-up processing may impede overall efficiency of speech perception. The proposed research program will test the following three hypotheses: 1) that the difficulties perceiving speech in noise for both L2 speakers and native APD groups are related to compromised acoustic-phonetic awareness (i.e., bottom-up processing); 2) that an improvement in bottom-up processing skills will aid speech perception in noise by reducing the need to rely as heavily on contextual information (i.e., top-down processing); and 3) that explicit training in bottom-up processing will improve speech perception in noise for both groups. These hypotheses will be tested through three aims. In Aim 1, listeners' use of top-down and bottom-up processing to understand speech in noise will be investigated by comparing perception of isolated words and words in sentences. In Aim 2, a novel bottom-up processing training procedure using sentences with little contextual information will be evaluated with a subgroup of L2 listeners selected under Aim 1. In Aim 3, this training procedure will be evaluated with a subgroup of APD listeners. The proposed research is an important initial stage in establishing an effective and efficient assessment and training protocol for individuals with APD and for L2 speakers of English. It is also expected to provide important new information on the underlying perceptual mechanisms used by individuals who experience difficulty understanding speech in noise. Relevance: The ultimate goal of this research project is to develop a protocol for the assessment and training of speech perception for individuals who experience marked difficulty understanding speech in noise. The efficacy of a novel auditory training protocol will be evaluated in two groups of individuals who are known to have difficulty understanding speech in noise: English speaking children with auditory processing disorders and/or language-based learning disabilities and adult L2 speakers of English.

描述(申请人提供)：即使对于听力正常的人来说，在不利的听力环境(例如，噪音)中的言语感知也比在安静中更难。这项拟议的研究计划的目标是评估一种新的评估和培训方案，用于在噪声中理解语音困难的个人。这两个目标人群是非母语(L2)英语使用者和患有各种形式的听觉处理障碍(统称为apd)的母语为英语的人。据报道，这两组人在噪音方面都存在类似的问题，但之前的研究表明，有几种不同的潜在机制。对于二语使用者来说，他们在噪声中的知觉问题主要是由于他们的母语的声学-语音干扰，通过掩盖噪声而恶化的。也就是说，他们的问题是使用上下文无关(自下而上)处理的能力减弱。为了弥补这一点，这组人倾向于严重依赖上下文信息(自上而下的处理)。其发病机制目前尚不清楚。虽然一些人认为噪音中的困难是由听觉时间编码受损造成的，但另一些人则认为，这一群体可能也有较差的声学-语音意识。尽管在正常母语人士中，这些技能如何结合在一起工作的言语感知模型不同，但似乎一致认为，自下而上的处理是自动的，而自上而下的处理可能更费力，并受到自下而上处理的完整性的影响。因此，过度使用自上而下的处理来弥补糟糕的自下而上的处理可能会阻碍语音感知的整体效率。该研究计划将检验以下三个假设：1)二语使用者和母语apd群体在噪声中感知语音的困难与受损的声学-语音意识(即自下而上处理)有关；2)自下而上处理技能的改进将通过减少对语境信息的严重依赖(即自上而下处理)来帮助在噪声中感知语音；以及3)自下而上处理中的显性训练将改善两组人在噪声中的语音感知。这些假设将通过三个目标进行检验。在目标1中，通过比较听者对孤立单词和句子中单词的感知来考察听者在噪声中使用自上而下和自下而上加工来理解语音的情况。在目标2中，一种使用较少上下文信息的句子的自下而上处理训练程序将与目标1中选择的一组二语听者一起进行评估。在目标3中，该训练程序将与一组apd听者一起进行评估。这项拟议的研究是建立一个有效和高效的评估和培训方案的重要初始阶段，该方案适用于apd患者和以英语为第二语言的人。它还有望为在噪音中难以理解语音的个人所使用的潜在感知机制提供重要的新信息。 相关性：本研究项目的最终目标是为在噪声中理解语音明显困难的个人开发一种语音感知评估和训练方案。一种新的听觉训练方案的效果将在两组已知在噪音中理解语音有困难的个人中进行评估：说英语的患有听觉处理障碍和/或基于语言的学习障碍的儿童和说英语的成年人。