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（由申请人提供）：在不利的听力环境中的语音感知（例如，噪声）比安静的人更加困难，即使对于有正常听力的人来说。拟议的研究计划的目的是评估一个新颖的评估和培训方案，为那些难以理解噪声中语音的个人。这两个目标人群是非母语（L2）英语的人和英语英语的人，具有各种形式的听觉处理障碍（通常称为APD）。两组的噪声问题类似，但先前的研究提出了几种不同的潜在机制。对于L2扬声器而言，已经假定他们在噪声中的感知问题主要是由于噪声掩盖而导致的原母语的声学干扰。也就是说，他们的问题是使用与上下文无关（自下而上）处理的能力下降。为了补偿，该小组倾向于在很大程度上依赖上下文信息（自上而下的处理）。 APD组的基本机制尚不清楚。尽管有些人认为噪声困难是由于听觉时间编码受损而造成的，但另一些人则建议该组的声学意识也很差。尽管语音感知的模型在这些技能如何在普通母语的人组合中起作用方面有所不同，但似乎同意自下而上的处理是自动的，而自上而下的处理可能会更加努力，并且受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以补偿不良的自下而上处理可能会阻碍语音感知的总体效率。拟议的研究计划将检验以下三个假设：1）感知L2扬声器和本地APD组噪声中的语音的困难与受损的声学意识有关（即自下而上的处理）； 2）提高自下而上的处理技巧将通过减少严重依赖上下文信息（即自上而下的处理）来帮助噪音的语音感知； 3）自下而上处理中的明确培训将改善两组噪声的语音感知。这些假设将通过三个目标进行检验。在AIM 1中，通过比较对句子中孤立的单词和单词的感知来研究听众对自上而下的处理和自下而上的处理来了解噪声中的语音。在AIM 2中，将使用几乎没有上下文信息的句子来评估一个新颖的自下而上的处理训练程序，将通过AIM 1中选择的L2侦听器的子组进行评估。在AIM 3中，将与APD听众的子组一起评估此培训程序。拟议的研究是为APD和L2英语说话者建立有效有效的评估和培训方案的重要初始阶段。还期望它提供有关在噪声中遇到困难的个人使用的基本知觉机制的重要新信息。 相关性：该研究项目的最终目标是为对噪声中的难度理解言语的个人进行评估和培训语音感知的协议。新型听觉培训方案的功效将在两组众所周知的个人中进行评估：在噪音中很难理解语音：具有听觉处理障碍和/或基于语言的学习障碍的英语儿童以及英语的成人L2说话者。