DEVELOPING AND TESTING MODELS OF THE AUDITORY SYSTEM WITH & WITHOUT HEARING LOSS

描述（由申请人提供）：感音神经性听力损失患者报告的最常见问题是在有背景噪音的情况下听。本提案中提出的新努力将集中在开发，测试和应用复合计算模型，用于生理和心理物理对复杂声音的反应，特别是存在背景噪声的声音。一个既能解释听力正常的听众令人印象深刻的能力，又能解释听力损失的听众在嘈杂环境中听到声音的困难的模型，将是一个宝贵的工具，可以更好地理解和预测听众在困难的听觉环境中的表现。这些信息可以用来设计新的和改进的助听器信号处理策略，这些策略在嘈杂的环境中是成功的。以前的计算模型已经成功地描述了听觉系统的几个层次的听觉处理，听觉外围的现象学模型包括耳蜗调谐、转导和单个听觉神经纤维的放电时间。最近的模型描述了脑干和中脑中的单个神经元和神经回路，包括双耳相互作用和神经振幅调制处理。神经群体反应的计算模型也被开发出来，用于预测听力损失和非听力损失的听众在基本心理物理任务中的表现。在拟议的项目中，将利用这些模型的经验来开发一种新的复合模型，将这些不同层次的加工联系在一起，为研究刺激线索和听觉通路上的神经机制的相互作用提供工具。这个单耳和双耳处理复杂声音的计算模型将通过清醒兔中脑（下丘）的生理记录和人类听者的心理物理测试进行测试和完善。该模型将用于预测听力正常的听者在有或没有双耳提示的情况下进行掩蔽检测的现有心理物理数据。这些心理物理研究将扩展到包括感音神经性听力损失的听者。最后，新模型将使用可重复调制掩蔽器预测有听力损失和无听力损失的听者在掩蔽调幅（AM）检测任务中的表现。调幅频率的生理调谐首先出现在中脑水平，这是所提出模型的最高水平。因此，这项任务将允许直接比较中脑AM处理的生理方面和心理物理表现。该建议提供了一个系统的过渡，从建模基本的生理反应到预测听力损失和无听力损失的听众在音频和调制频率域的心理物理检测任务中的表现。本研究项目的长期目标是开发一种强大的工具，用于开发和测试听力损失听众的新型信号处理策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The most common problem reported by people with sensorineural hearing loss is listening in the presence of background noise. The new efforts presented in this proposal will focus on the development, testing, and application of a composite computational model for physiological and psychophysical responses to complex sounds, especially sounds in the presence of background noise. A model that explains both the impressive ability of normal-hearing listeners, and the difficulty of listeners with hearing loss, to hear sounds in noisy environments will be an invaluable tool to better understand and predict listeners' performance in difficult auditory situations. This information can then be used to design new and improved hearing-aid signal-processing strategies that are successful in noisy situations. Previous computational models have successfully described auditory processing at several levels of the auditory system with phenomenological models for the auditory periphery that include cochlear tuning, transduction, and discharge times of individual auditory-nerve fibers. More recent models describe single neurons and neural circuits in the brain stem and mid-brain, including binaural interactions and neural amplitude-modulation processing. Computational models of neural population responses have also been developed to predict the performance of listeners with and without hearing loss in basic psychophysical tasks. In the proposed project, experience with these models will be leveraged to develop a novel, composite model that ties together these different levels of processing, providing a tool for studying the interactions of stimulus cues and neural mechanisms along the auditory pathway. This computational model for monaural and binaural processing of complex sounds will be tested and refined using physiological recordings from the midbrain (inferior colliculus) of awake rabbit and psychophysical tests in human listeners. The model will be used to predict existing psychophysical data for masked detection, both with and without binaural cues, by listeners with normal hearing. These psychophysical studies will be extended to include listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. Finally, the new model will predict performance of listeners with and without hearing loss on a masked amplitude-modulation (AM) detection task using reproducible modulation maskers. Physiological tuning for amplitude-modulation frequency first emerges at the level of the midbrain, the highest level of the proposed model. Thus this task will allow direct comparison between physiological aspects of AM processing at the mid-brain and psychophysical performance. This proposal provides a systematic transition from modeling basic physiological responses to predicting performance of listeners with and without hearing loss in psychophysical detection tasks in the audio- and modulation-frequency domains. The long term goal of this research program is to develop a robust tool for the development and testing of novel signal-processing strategies for listeners with hearing loss.