Effects of auditory nerve degeneration on midbrain coding and perception in noise

听神经变性对中脑编码和噪声感知的影响

• 批准号: 8676991
• 负责人: Kenneth Stuart Henry
• 金额: $ 8.98万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8676991
• 关键词: Acoustic Nerve; Acoustics; Affect; Animals; Auditory; Auditory system; Behavioral; Birds; Birth; Brain Stem; Cell Nucleus; Cells; Code; Communication; Communities; Complex; Data; Detection; Development; Diffuse; Discrimination; Ear; Environment; Equilibrium; Exposure to; Faculty; Fiber; Frequencies; Goals; Hair Cells; Hearing; Human; Impairment; Individual; Institution; Kainic Acid; Knowledge; Left; Mammals; Masks; Measurement; Measures; Melopsittacus; Mentors; Midbrain structure; Modeling; Nerve Degeneration; Nerve Fibers; Neurons; Neurosciences; Noise; Operant Conditioning; Perception; Performance; Phase; Physiological; Play; Process; Property; Psychoacoustics; Recording of previous events; Reporting; Research; Role; Sensory Hair; Signal Transduction; Speech; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception; Stimulus; System; Testing; Time; Training; Universities; Work; awake; base; behavior test; career development; cell injury; cell type; falls; hearing impairment; insight; neurophysiology; new technology; normal aging; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; skills; sound; treatment strategy

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent studies show that auditory-nerve degeneration is associated with both normal aging and noise-induced "temporary" hearing loss. Though auditory-nerve degeneration in older listeners and individuals with a history of noise overexposure may contribute to perceptual difficulties in these groups, this hypothesis is currently unexplored. Individuals in these groups commonly report great difficulty understanding speech under real- world listening conditions. The proposed research will test the hypothesis that auditory-nerve degeneration causes adverse changes in central processing that ultimately degrade perception of complex signals in background noise. Parallel neurophysiological recordings from the auditory mid-brain and behavioral experiments involving complex stimuli in background noise will be conducted in the budgerigar because this avian species has human-like perceptual capabilities. Acoustic stimuli will include speech tokens and natural budgerigar calls. The K99 mentored research will use parallel neurophysiological and behavioral approaches to identify functional cell classes in the mid-brain that contribute to robust perceptual abilities in normal-hearing animals. Having advanced our knowledge of normal-hearing perception, the R00 independent research will quantify changes in mid-brain coding and perception in noise with auditory-nerve degeneration. Auditory-nerve degeneration will be induced with kainic acid based on previous results showing that this agent selectively damages nerve fibers while leaving cochlear hair cells intact. The results of this research are expected to have high impact because they will quantify, possibly for the first time, the perceptual consequences of auditory-nerve degeneration under real-world listening conditions. Furthermore, the parallel physiological and behavioral data provided by this work are expected to provide unique insight into the physiological changes underlying perceptual difficulties. Ultimately, this knowledge can help guide new technologies and treatment strategies aimed at restoring performance in people with speech perception problems in noise. The K99 mentored phase of the proposed research will aid in the candidate's career development by expanding his previous neurophysiological training in auditory-nerve fiber recordings into the central auditory system. Furthermore, the candidate will gain valuable new skills in animal psychoacoustics. The University of Rochester is an excellent environment for the K99 research because this institution has an active systems neuroscience community including the Sponsor and other key faculty. The new combination of skills provided by this work will allow the candidate to achieve his goal of using parallel physiological and behavioral approaches to help pinpoint the physiological changes underlying human communication problems.

描述(申请人提供)：最近的研究表明，听神经退化与正常衰老和噪音导致的“暂时性”听力损失有关。尽管年长的听者和有过度噪音暴露史的人的听神经退化可能会导致这些群体的感知困难，但这一假设目前还没有得到探索。这些群体中的个人通常报告说，在现实世界的听力条件下，理解演讲非常困难。这项拟议的研究将检验这一假设，即听神经退化会导致中央处理过程的不利变化，最终降低对背景噪声中复杂信号的感知。鹦鹉将在听觉中脑进行平行的神经生理记录，并在背景噪音中进行涉及复杂刺激的行为实验，因为这种鸟类具有类似人类的感知能力。声音刺激将包括语音令牌和自然虎皮鹦鹉的叫声。K99指导的研究将使用平行的神经生理学和行为方法来识别中脑中有助于正常听力动物强大感知能力的功能细胞类别。在推进了我们对正常听觉感知的知识之后，R00独立研究将量化中脑编码的变化，以及在噪声中听觉神经退化的感知变化。根据先前的研究结果，海人酸会诱导听神经变性，这种药物选择性地损伤神经纤维，而不损害耳蜗毛细胞。这项研究的结果预计将 有很大的影响，因为他们将量化，可能是第一次，在真实世界的收听条件下，听觉神经退化的感知后果。此外，这项工作提供的平行的生理和行为数据有望为知觉困难背后的生理变化提供独特的见解。最终，这些知识可以帮助指导新的技术和治疗策略，旨在恢复在噪音中有言语感知问题的人的表现。拟议研究的K99指导阶段将通过将他之前在听觉神经纤维记录方面的神经生理学培训扩展到中央听觉系统来帮助候选人的职业发展。此外，候选人还将在动物心理声学方面获得有价值的新技能。罗切斯特大学是K99研究的绝佳环境，因为该机构拥有一个活跃的系统神经科学社区，包括赞助商和其他关键教员。这项工作提供的新技能组合将使应试者能够实现他的目标，即使用并行的生理和行为方法来帮助精确定位人类沟通问题背后的生理变化。