Visual and auditory perceptual factors affecting spatial release from masking

描述（由申请人提供）：对许多人来说，在许多其他声音竞争的情况下听一个人说话是一个严重的问题，即使是听力测试结果正常的人也是如此。当声源在空间上分开时，在这些不利条件下的语音理解能力会显著提高，这种效应被称为掩蔽的空间释放。如果一个人看向感兴趣的说话人，看到那个人的脸可以提供视觉空间和时间信息，可以进一步提高理解，使其成为一种常见而重要的听力学康复策略。然而，候选人最近的研究表明，仅仅是将目光转向那个声音的行为就能带来感知上的好处。此外，尽管空间听力和视觉信息对听觉选择性注意的重要性被广泛接受，但这些过程之间的相互作用在很大程度上尚未被探索，并且很少有工作来描述个体听者之间空间听力能力的差异如何影响他们在嘈杂情况下的倾听能力。在本研究计划的指导训练阶段，候选人将在接受视觉神经科学培训的同时进行两个实验，探索眼睛注视和视觉信息的影响。他将首先通过测量定向眼的效果来建立他之前的发现

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Difficulty listening to one person speak in the presence of many other competing sounds is a significant problem for many people, even some with normal hearing test results. Understanding speech in these adverse conditions improves markedly when sound sources are spatially separated, an effect known as spatial release from masking. If a person looks toward a talker of interest, seeing that person's face provides visual spatial and temporal information that can improve understanding even more, making this a common and important audiologic rehabilitative strategy. However, recent work performed by the candidate hints at a perceptual benefit from the mere act of directing gaze toward that sound. Furthermore, despite wide acceptance of the importance of spatial hearing and visual information to auditory selective attention, the interplay between these processes is largely unexplored and little work has been done to characterize how differences in spatial hearing abilities among individual listeners affects their ability to listen in noisy situations. In the mentored training phase of this research program, the candidate will perform two experiments exploring the impact of eye gaze and visual information while receiving training in visual neuroscience. He will first build on his previous findings by measuring the effects of directed eye gaze on spatial release from masking in a multiple- talker speech task (Aim 1). Next he will assess the low-level benefits of spatial and temporal visual information to selective attention in task that uses stimuli that exhibit some of the basic characteristics of speech but are non-linguistic in nature (Aim 2). After progressing to the independent phase of the award, the candidate will examine the range of auditory spatial abilities in normal hearing listeners and the effects of binaural deficits on listening performance in multiple-talker environments, then whether deficits can be ascertained electrophysio- logically, and ultimately if spatial deficits change the way listeners leverage visual cues (Aim 3). This research is clinically relevant because it will provide important insights into listening in noise: how spatial hearing deficits affect understanding in the individual, and what specific visual factors underlie important audio-visual coping strategies. The work will facilitate the candidate's immediate career goals of becoming an audio-visual researcher with the necessary substantial experience in both sensory modalities and the ability to execute experiments using measures of both behavior and brain activity. Training during the mentored phase will be supplemented by formal coursework in the physiology and neuroscience of the visual system, meetings with the co-mentor's visual neuroscience group to learn the current literature and critically evaluate the candidate's own work, and by learning nonscientific skills such as mentoring and lab management from the primary mentor as well as institution-wide seminars. The research performed and training provided during this award will be critical for the candidate's long-term goal of directing a lab whose research yields important new insights into how people understand and navigate their sensory world.