High-Frequency Hearing Loss and Early Aging Effects on Auditory Temporal Coding

高频听力损失和早期衰老对听觉时间编码的影响

• 批准号: 8960298
• 负责人: Elizabeth D. Leigh
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: JAMES H QUILLEN VA MEDICAL CENTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8960298
• 关键词: Accounting; Acoustics; Address; Adult; Affect; Age; Aging; Audiology; Audiometry; Auditory; Auditory Evoked Potentials; Auditory system; Basic Science; Behavioral; Clinic; Clinical; Code; Complex; Computer software; Detection; Development; Devices; Diagnostic; Discrimination; Electrophysiology (science); Equipment; Experimental Designs; FarGo; Florida; Frequencies; General Population; Goals; Hearing; Hearing Aids; High-Frequency Hearing Loss; Home environment; Impairment; Individual; Instruction; Knowledge; Laboratories; Literature; Masks; Measurement; Measures; Mentors; Methods; Noise; Participant; Patients; Perception; Performance; Physiological; Play; Process; Psychophysics; Recovery; Recruitment Activity; Rehabilitation therapy; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Sensorineural Hearing Loss; Series; Short-Term Memory; Signal Transduction; Speech; Speech Perception; Stimulus; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Time; Training; Translating; United States; Universities; Veterans; Wisconsin; age effect; age related; aged; base; body system; experience; hearing impairment; improved; insight; male; men; middle age; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; signal processing; skills; speech processing; young adult

DESCRIPTION: Temporal coding is the ability of the auditory system to detect and transmit fluctuations in time across the acoustic signal. Sensorineural hearing loss and early aging have the potential to reduce the temporal resolving power of the auditory system. The relevant literature, however, shows mixed results from psychophysical studies, speech perception studies, and physiologic studies. The lack of a clear understanding of how hearing loss changes temporal processing (or not) may be the result of several factors including early age-related changes in neural recovery or adaptation and methodological issues (e.g., equivalent presentation levels, stimulus complexity). A series of experiments to measure temporal processing in middle-aged adults with and without high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (abbreviated as HFL throughout proposal) is proposed. This understudied group has been largely overlooked in the study of auditory aging because most older subjects have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss and research is often conducted in low-frequency regions where pure-tone thresholds are similar to those of younger subjects. Presenescent changes have been found for speech perception (Helfer and Fargo, 2009) and for auditory temporal coding (Grose et al., 2006). Significantly poorer gap detection occurs for stimuli presented in regions of normal pure-tone sensitivity when high-frequency hearing loss is present. The proposed research will improve our understanding of early aging and HFL on auditory temporal coding. The purpose of the primary study is to determine the extent to which early aging and HFL impact temporal coding in regions of normal low-frequency hearing. The current study addresses these purposes with the following three specific questions: (1) Is there a significant difference in low-frequency temporal coding between listeners with normal pure-tone sensitivity and listeners with HFL? (2) Is there a significant difference in temporal coding between young subjects (aged 18 - 30 years) and middle-aged subjects (aged 40 - 60 years) who have normal pure-tone sensitivity? and (3) Are psychophysical or electrophysiologic measures of temporal coding related? Four groups of subjects will be targeted for a series of experiments as follows: (1) young adults with normal pure-tone sensitivity (YNH), (2) middle-aged adults with normal pure-tone sensitivity (MANH), (3) young adults with HFL (YHFL), and (4) middle-aged adults with HFL (MAHFL). Normal hearing will be defined as pure-tone thresholds d25 dB HL for the frequencies from 250- to 8000 Hz. High-frequency hearing will be defined as pure-tone thresholds d25 dB HL from 250 - 2000 Hz and e 35 dB HL from 3000 - 8000 Hz. Participants will be recruited from the Audiology Clinic at the VA at Mountain Home. One short-term objective is to acquire a high-level of technical understanding of signal processing and experimental design as well as insight into parallel experimental designs in multiple domains (e.g., clinical audiology, psychophysics, and electrophysiology). The new skills will provide a bridge between my basic research skills acquired to date and advanced skills necessary to transition into an independent VA investigator. A second short-term goal is to acquire the experience needed to analyze cortical auditory evoked potentials, which inherently are complex. Thus, the focus will be practical and theoretical integration by leveraging the expertise of the CDA-2 mentors (Drs. Murnane, Eddins, and Fowler). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE High-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (HFL) affects up to 93% of males in the United States aged 60-69 years and 57% of men aged 40-49 years. Veterans with hearing loss typically have more noise exposure and are older than the general population; these circumstances both contribute to HFL. Between 2008 and 2009 compensable claims for impaired hearing grew 12.4%, which was more than any other body system impairment and middle-aged adults (35-54 years) accounted for 30% of those Veterans (Annual Benefits Report FY2009, p. 9-10). Currently, it is not understood in what way early aging and HFL contribute to reduced temporal processing and speech understanding. The knowledge gained by this research will provide direct benefit to Veterans suffering from HFL by better rehabilitative strategies (e.g., auditory training) or devices (e.g., processors for hearing aids).

说明： 时间编码是听觉系统检测并通过声信号传输时间波动的能力。感觉神经性听力损失和早期衰老有可能降低听觉系统的时间分辨率。然而，相关文献显示，来自心理物理学研究、言语知觉研究和生理学研究的结果好坏参半。缺乏对听力损失如何改变时间加工(或不改变)的清楚了解可能是几个因素的结果，包括神经恢复或适应的早期年龄相关变化以及方法学问题(例如，等同的呈现水平、刺激的复杂性)。提出了一系列实验来测量患有和不伴有高频感音神经性听力损失的中年人的时间加工(全书简称HFL)。在听觉老化的研究中，这一未被充分研究的群体在很大程度上被忽视了，因为大多数老年受试者都有一定程度的高频听力损失，而且研究通常在纯音阈值与年轻受试者相似的低频区进行。已经发现言语知觉(Helfer和Fargo，2009)和听觉时间编码(Gose et al.，2006)的老年前变化。当存在高频听力损失时，出现在正常纯音敏感区的刺激物的间隙检测明显较差。这项研究将提高我们对听觉时间编码的早期衰老和HFL的理解。初步研究的目的是确定早期衰老和HFL对正常低频听力区域的时间编码的影响程度。本研究通过以下三个具体问题来解决这些问题：(1)纯音敏感性正常的受试者与听力正常的受试者在低频时间编码上是否存在显著差异？(2)正常纯音敏感性的青年受试者(18-30岁)与中年受试者(40-60岁)在时间编码上是否存在显著差异？(3)时间编码的心理物理或电生理测量是否相关？被试分为四组：(1)纯音敏感度正常的青壮年(YNH)，(2)正常纯音敏感度(MANH)的中年人，(3)HFL的青壮年(YHFL)，(4)HFL的中年人(MAHFL)。正常听力将被定义为250-8000赫兹频率下的纯音阈值D25dBHL。高频听力将被定义为250-2000赫兹范围内的纯音阈值d25分贝HL和3000-8000赫兹范围内的35分贝HL。参与者将从山上之家退伍军人管理局的听力诊所招募。一个短期目标是获得对信号处理和实验设计的高水平技术理解，以及对多个领域(例如，临床听力学、心理物理学和电生理学)的并行实验设计的洞察。这些新技能将在我迄今获得的基本研究技能和过渡到独立退伍军人管理局调查员所需的高级技能之间架起一座桥梁。第二个短期目标是获得分析皮质听觉诱发电位所需的经验，因为皮质听觉诱发电位本身就很复杂。因此，重点将是通过利用CDA-2导师(Murnane博士、Eddins博士和Fowler博士)的专业知识进行实践和理论整合。 公共卫生相关性 在美国，高达93%的60-69岁男性和57%的40-49岁男性会受到高频感音神经性耳聋的影响。患有听力损失的退伍军人通常有更多的噪声暴露，并且比普通人群年龄更大；这些情况都会导致HFL。2008至2009年间，听力受损的可补偿索赔增加了12.4%，高于任何其他身体系统损伤，中年人(35-54岁)占退伍军人的30%(2009财年年度福利报告，第9-10页)。目前，还不清楚早期衰老和HFL是如何导致时间处理和语音理解能力下降的。通过这项研究获得的知识将通过更好的康复策略(例如听力训练)或设备(例如助听器处理器)为患有HFL的退伍军人提供直接好处。