Understanding speech in noise_The roles of aging and attentional entrainment

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的总体目标是确定老年人言语理解问题的根本原因。有或没有明显听力损失的老年听众在存在竞争声音的情况下理解语音通常比年轻听众困难得多（CHABA，1988; Dubno等人，1984; Duquesnoy，1983）。对于听力受损的收听者，听力损失（或可听度）程度的差异占收听者在存在竞争声音的情况下理解语音的能力的差异的很大一部分，但是其他因素（例如，认知或中枢听觉因素）对听力受损和听力正常的听众都起着重要作用（参见Houtgast & Festin，2008; Akeroyd，2008; Humes，2007; Humes & Dubno，2010; Humes，Kidd，& Lentz，2013）。一个有希望的假设，这已经收到了相对较少的关注日期，是有效的语音理解在竞争的声音存在强烈依赖于以下的话语的时间结构的能力，并通过注意夹带的过程中准确地预测语音事件的时间。根据夹带假说（参见Large & Jones，1999; McAuley等人，2006）注意力跟踪语音的时间模式的能力通过增强对与讲话者的时间模式相对应的语音事件的注意力来帮助收听者在感知上隔离和解析单个讲话者的语音的细节。此外，准确的推断的时间模式，通过听不见的或部分可听的部分的话语，建议将它们纳入一个共同的时间框架，以促进间歇性的“瞥见”的语音集成。这个一般的假设将通过一系列的实验，测试夹带理论的预测在语音环境中，结合一个新的测试电池，评估夹带能力的个体差异进行调查。将对1000名有听力损失和没有听力损失的年轻人和老年人的样本进行测试，使用整形放大来确保听力受损的听众的可听度。该项目将采用行为和神经生理学的措施相结合，以确定如何夹带能力与语音理解，同时控制的基本听觉能力和认知能力的个体差异，以前被证明是重要的语音感知。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of the proposed research is to identify the underlying causes of speech understanding problems in older adults. Older listeners, with or without significant hearing loss, often have much greater difficulty understanding speech in the presence of competing sounds than do younger listeners (CHABA, 1988; Dubno et al., 1984; Duquesnoy, 1983). For hearing-impaired listeners, differences in degree of hearing loss (or audibility) account for a large portion of the variance in listeners' ability to understand speech in the presence of competing sounds, but other factors (e.g., cognitive or central auditory factors) play an important role for both hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners (see Houtgast & Festin, 2008; Akeroyd, 2008; Humes, 2007; Humes & Dubno, 2010; Humes, Kidd, & Lentz, 2013). One promising hypothesis, which has received relatively little attention to date, is that effective speech understanding in the presence of competing sounds depends strongly on the ability to follow the temporal structure of an utterance and to accurately anticipate the timing of speech events through a process of attentional entrainment. According to the entrainment hypothesis (see Large & Jones, 1999; McAuley et al., 2006) the ability to attentionally track the temporal patterns of speech helps listeners to perceptually isolate and resolve the details of a single talker's speech by enhancing attention to speech events that correspond to a talker's temporal pattern. Moreover, accurate extrapolation of temporal patterns through inaudible or partially audible portions of an utterance is proposed to facilitate the integration of intermittent "glimpses" of speech by incorporating them in a common temporal framework. This general hypothesis will be investigated through a series of experiments that test the predictions of entrainment theory in a speech context, in combination with a new test battery that assesses individual differences in entrainment ability. A sample of 1000 young and older listeners with and without hearing loss will be tested, using shaped amplification to ensure audibility for hearing- impaired listeners. The project will employ a combination of behavioral and neurophysiological measures to determine how entrainment ability is related to speech understanding, while controlling for individual differences in basic auditory capabilities and cognitive abilities previously shown to be important for speech perception.