Visual and auditory perceptual factors affecting spatial release from masking

描述（由申请人提供）：对于许多人来说，在存在许多其他竞争声音的情况下难以听清一个人的讲话是一个重大问题，甚至对一些听力测试结果正常的人来说也是如此。当声源在空间上分离时，在这些不利条件下理解语音的能力会显着提高，这种效应称为掩蔽空间释放。如果一个人看着感兴趣的谈话者，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能力，这使得这是一种常见且重要的听力康复策略。然而，候选人最近进行的研究暗示，仅仅将目光转向该声音的行为就会带来感知上的好处。此外，尽管人们广泛接受空间听觉和视觉信息对听觉选择性注意的重要性，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众之间空间听觉能力的差异如何影响他们在嘈杂环境中聆听的能力。在该研究计划的指导培训阶段，候选人将在接受视觉神经科学培训的同时进行两项实验，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影响来建立他之前的发现 关注多说话者语音任务中掩蔽的空间释放（目标 1）。接下来，他将评估空间和时间视觉信息对选择性注意任务的低水平益处，该任务使用表现出语音的一些基本特征但本质上是非语言的刺激（目标 2）。在进入奖项的独立阶段后，候选人将检查正常听力听众的听觉空间能力范围以及双耳缺陷对多说话者环境中听力表现的影响，然后是否可以通过电生理学来确定缺陷，以及最终空间缺陷是否会改变听众利用视觉线索的方式（目标3）。这项研究具有临床相关性，因为它将为噪声中的听力提供重要的见解：空间听力缺陷如何影响个人的理解，以及哪些特定的视觉因素构成重要的视听应对策略。这项工作将促进候选人的直接职业目标，即成为一名视听研究员，在感官模式方面拥有必要的丰富经验，并能够利用行为和大脑活动的测量来执行实验。指导阶段的培训将辅以视觉系统生理学和神经科学的正式课程、与共同导师的视觉神经科学小组的会议以了解当前文献并批判性地评估候选人自己的工作，以及从主要导师和机构范围的研讨会中学习非科学技能，例如指导和实验室管理。该奖项期间进行的研究和提供的培训对于候选人指导实验室的长期目标至关重要，该实验室的研究为人们如何理解和驾驭他们的感官世界提供了重要的新见解。

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.