Formation and Tuning of Complex Auditory Categories

描述（由申请人提供）：这项合作研究计划调查的过程中形成和调整复杂的声音类别。总体目标是提供一个模型的听觉分类，可以很容易地应用到语音感知和沟通障碍的挑战。语言学习者从许多说话者发出的经验语音的分布中形成母语声音的（语音）听觉类别。然而，这些平均类别可能不适合于由特定说话者产生的语音。例如，非本族语可能不遵循本族语者的典型模式。目前的项目的目的是开发和测试一个理论和实践模型，听众如何使用上下文规范化，或调整，语音感知的特点，一个特定的听力情况。所提出的实验将使模型超越仅仅是规范化的演示，以定量预测作为上下文内容和时间范围的函数的性能。这样一个实用的模型可以用来开发助听器和植入物的信号处理策略，以及预测语音障碍的可懂度。建立在以前的项目的实证结果，本研究测试的预测所产生的假设，即一个一般的听觉机制敏感的背景和目标声音之间发生的频谱相互作用，可以占定量的语音感知模式，似乎需要提取的声道特定的谈话者的信息。另一组实验将测试说话者特定语音模式的感知学习对支持这种机制的影响。最后一系列的实验将弥合经常存在于言语感知现象的测试和理解真实世界的言语可懂度和理解之间的差距。这种联系是至关重要的理论和证据为基础的临床方法在治疗沟通障碍。 公共卫生相关性：公共卫生需要基于对潜在机制的详细了解而开发的疗法。了解听众如何在许多谈话者中编码语音的复杂声学结构，对于开发和评估受语言处理障碍，听力障碍和自闭症等发育障碍影响的个体的治疗至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This collaborative research program investigates processes underlying the formation and tuning of complex sound categories. The overall goal is to provide a model of auditory categorization that can be readily applied to challenges of speech perception and communication disorders. Language learners form (phonetic) auditory categories of native-language sounds from the distributions of experienced speech sounds produced by many talkers. However, these averaged categories may not be appropriate for the speech produced by a specific talker. For example, non-native speech may not adhere to the patterns typical of native speakers. The aim of the current project is to develop and test a theoretical and practical model of how listeners use context to normalize, or tune, speech perception to the characteristics of a particular listening situation. The proposed experiments will move the model beyond mere demonstrations of normalization to make quantitative predictions of performance as a function of the content and temporal extent of the context. Such a practical model can be used to develop signal processing strategies for hearing aids and implants as well as to predict intelligibility of disordered speech. Building on the empirical outcomes of the previous project, the present research tests predictions arising from the hypothesis that a general auditory mechanism sensitive to the spectral interactions that occur between context and target sounds can account quantitatively for patterns of speech perception that appear to require extraction of vocal-tract-specific talker information. Another set of experiments will test the influence of perceptual learning of talker-specific patterns of speech in supporting this mechanism. A final series of experiments will bridge the gap that often exists between tests of speech perception phenomena and understanding real-world speech intelligibility and comprehension. Such a linkage is critical for deriving theory- and evidence-based clinical approaches in treatment of communication disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Public health requires therapies developed based on detailed knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. Understanding how listeners encode the complex acoustic structure of speech across many talkers is critical to developing and evaluating therapies for individuals affected with language processing disorders, hearing impairment and developmental disorders like autism.