Electrophysiology of Infant Speech Perception

简介(由申请人提供)：CONE-WESON的职业生涯包括在医院/医学院的项目中担任临床医生兼调查员15年，在提供听力学临床培训的学术项目中担任教师兼调查员10年。她的研究重点是婴儿的听力障碍，使用电生理学方法检测和评估这些听力障碍。她的研究试图将发育神经科学与临床听力学结合起来，以便在大脑极具可塑性的时期，对婴儿期的残疾进行早期发现、评估和治疗。环境：亚利桑那大学言语、语言和听力科学系通过其博士项目提供研究培训，并通过言语语言病理学硕士项目和听力学博士学位(8月)提供临床培训。该系内的研究项目是高度跨学科的，与神经学和儿科等(临床)系以及细胞生物学和解剖学、电气和计算机工程、心理学、生理学、神经科学和认知科学、语言学、特殊教育和康复等(学术)系的合作。研究：具体目标是：1)使用脑干和皮质的听觉诱发电位评估婴儿对言语特征的辨别能力；2)使用适合年龄的行为方法评估言语感知能力；3)将电生理学和行为方法结合起来，预测听力损失、中枢性听觉功能障碍或语言障碍的婴儿的言语感知能力和最终的言语和语言发育。这项研究提出的长期目标是获得关于婴儿对包括语音在内的复杂声音的听力敏感度和感知能力发展的详细知识。相关性：新生儿听力筛查增加了被确认为听力损失的婴儿的数量；这些婴儿将从听力、言语和语言的早期评估和干预中受益最大。在拟议的研究中获得的知识将构成听力评估和婴儿治疗和居住监测的创新和灵敏的临床方法的基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cone-Wesson's career has included 15 years as a clinician-investigator in hospital/medical school based programs, and 10 years as a teacher-investigator, in academic programs offering clinical training in audiology. Her research has been focused on hearing disabilities in very young infants, using electrophysiological methods for detection and assessment of those hearing disabilities. Her research seeks to combine developmental neuroscience with clinical audiology, so as to provide for the early detection, assessment and treatment of the disability in infancy, during a period of prodigious brain plasticity. Environment: The University of Arizona Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences offers research training through its Ph.D. program, and clinical training through a master's program in speech- language pathology and an audiology doctorate (Au.D.). The research programs within the department are highly interdisciplinary in nature with collaborations in (clinical) departments such as Neurology and Pediatrics and in (academic) departments of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Psychology, Physiology, Neuroscience, and Cognitive Sciences, Linguistics, Special Education and Rehabilitation. Research: Specific aims are to: 1) evaluate infant discrimination of speech features using auditory evoked potentials from the brainstem and cortex; 2) evaluate speech perception abilities using age-appropriate behavioral methods; 3) tie together electrophysiologic and behavioral methods to predict speech perception abilities and eventual speech and language development in infants at risk for hearing loss, central auditory dysfunction or language impairment. The long-term goals the research proposed are to obtain detailed knowledge about the development of infant hearing sensitivity for, and perception of, complex sounds including speech. Relevance: Newborn hearing screening has increase the number of infants identified with hearing loss; these infants will benefit most from early assessment of and intervention for hearing, speech and language. The knowledge gained in the proposed research will constitute the basis of innovative and sensitive clinical methods for hearing evaluation and the monitoring of treatment and habitation in infants.