Electrophysiology and Perception of Speech in Noise

描述（由申请人提供）：在背景噪音中聆听是最困难的听力情况之一，是助听器使用者的主要投诉，也是老年人的常见投诉。尽管在这些人群中的感知噪声数据的流行，它仍然不清楚如何在这些人群中的感知能力的人类皮质编码的信号噪声。噪声中感知性能的显著变化可以通过个体之间的神经编码差异来解释。因此，提出的研究的目的是更好地表征噪声中语音信号的神经编码，并将该编码与行为联系起来。皮质听觉诱发电位和行为信噪比测试将用于回答三个问题。(1)信噪比（SNR）对大脑皮层在噪声中编码信号有什么影响？(2)背景噪声类型对大脑皮层在噪声中编码信号有什么影响？(3)大脑皮层对噪音中信号的表征与对噪音中信号的感知有何关联？为了回答这些问题，信噪比和背景噪声类型将在四个组中变化（年轻听力正常，年轻听力受损，老年听力正常和老年听力受损）。希望生理和行为信息的结合将提高我们对噪声中感知变化的理解，并改善对噪声中信号缺陷的诊断和治疗。 公共卫生相关性：在背景噪音中聆听对于许多人来说是一个重大挑战，包括老年人和听力受损的人;此外，个体之间的表现差异也是一个重要的挑战。皮质神经编码的测量将提供关于听觉系统的额外有价值的信息，并且可以用于更好地理解和治疗个体在噪声中的感知困难。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Listening in background noise is one of the most difficult listening situations, ranking as the primary complaint among hearing aid users and a common complaint among the elderly. Despite the prevalence of perception-in-noise data in these populations, it remains unclear how human cortical encoding of signals in noise contributes to perceptual abilities in these populations. A significant portion of the variability in perception-in-noise performance may be explained by neural encoding differences across individuals. Therefore, the purpose of the research proposed is to better characterize the neural encoding of speech signals in noise and relate that encoding to behavior. Cortical auditory evoked potentials together with behavioral signal-in-noise testing will be used to answer three questions. (1) What is the effect of signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) on cortical encoding of signals in noise? (2) What are the effects of background noise type on cortical encoding of signals in noise? (3) How does the cortical representation of signals in noise correlate with perception of signals in noise? To answer these questions, signal-to-noise ratio and background noise type will be varied across four groups (young normal hearing, young hearing impaired, old normal hearing, and old hearing impaired). It is hoped that the combination of physiological and behavioral information will improve our understanding of perception-in-noise variability and lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of signal-in-noise deficits. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Listening in background noise is a major challenge for many individuals, including older individual and hearing-impaired individuals; furthermore, performance variability across individuals is an important challenge. A measure of cortical neural encoding would provide additional valuable information about the auditory system and may be used to better understand and treat perception-in-noise difficulties across individuals.