Cortical Dynamics of Auditory Attention

描述(申请人提供)：为了在拥挤的环境中动态跟踪不同的对话，我们必须不断地将注意力集中到感兴趣的听觉信号上，并分离来自其他来源的声音。听力正常的听者可以无缝地完成这项任务，但听力受损的听者、人工耳蜗使用者和患有(中枢)听觉处理障碍的人往往发现在这个日常的声学环境中进行沟通具有挑战性。这项研究的长期目标是表征与听觉注意的不同方面相关的大脑皮层动力学，并将这些大脑信号整合到下一代助听器中，以帮助解释听者的注意力焦点。目前的项目建立在一个假设的基础上，即存在协调自上而下和自下而上听觉注意的分布的皮质区域，并且这些区域在功能上与听觉感觉区域的耦合程度因手头任务的不同而不同。与听觉注意相关的大脑动力学目前还不是很清楚，因此实现我们的长期目标的必要的第一步是研究听力正常的听者的注意网络。该项目的具体目标试图找出 根据空间和非空间特征招募注意力的大脑皮层区域(目标1)，以及当周围听觉信号退化时，大脑皮层其余部分如何通过模拟听力受损的听者和人工耳蜗者经历的频谱敏锐度下降进行补偿(目标2)。此外，我们建议采取系统水平的方法，研究其他皮质区域如何与听觉感觉区域通信，以便在拥挤的声学场景中协调注意力的切换和维持(目标3)。我们的建议强调设计行为范式，弥合心理声学和神经成像研究之间的差距，从而解决大脑皮层不同区域如何协调行动，帮助我们在日常环境中进行沟通。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In order to dynamically follow different conversations in a crowded environment, we must constantly direct attention to the auditory signal of interest and segregate sounds that originated from other sources. Normal-hearing listeners can achieve this task seamlessly, but hearing-impaired listeners, cochlear implant users, and individuals with (central) auditory processing disorders often find communicating in this everyday acoustic environment challenging. The long-term objective of this research is to characterize the cortical dynamics associated with different aspects of auditory attention and to incorporate these brain signals in a next-generation hearing assistive device that helps account for the listener's attentional focus. The current project is built on the hypothesis that there are distributed corticl regions that coordinate top-down and bottom-up auditory attention, and that these regions are functionally coupled to the auditory sensory areas differently depending on the task at hand. The brain dynamics associated with auditory attention are currently not well understood, and thus a necessary first step to achieve our long-term objective is to study the attentional network in normal-hearing listeners. The specific aims of this project seek to identify differences between the cortical regions recruited for attention based on spatial and non-spatial features (Aim 1), as well as how the rest of the cortex compensates when the peripheral auditory signal is degraded by simulating the reduction in spectrotemporal acuity experienced by listeners with hearing impairments and cochlear implant users (Aim 2). Furthermore, we propose to take a systems-level approach and investigate how other cortical regions communicate with the auditory sensory areas in order to coordinate switching and maintenance of attention in a crowded acoustical scene (Aim 3). Our proposal emphasizes designing behavioral paradigms that bridge the gap between psychoacoustics and neuroimaging research, thereby addressing how different regions of the cortex act in concert to aid us in communicating in everyday settings.