Understanding speech in noise_The roles of aging and attentional entrainment

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的首要目标是确定老年人言语理解问题的根本原因。年长的听者，无论有没有严重的听力损失，在有相互竞争的声音存在的情况下，通常比年轻的听者更难理解言语(Chaba，1988；Dubno等人，1984；Duqunoy，1983)。对于听力受损的听者，听力损失程度(或可听性)的差异是在竞争声音存在的情况下理解语言的能力差异的一大部分，但其他因素(例如，认知或中枢听觉因素)对听力受损和听力正常的听者都起着重要作用(见Houtgast&Festin，2008；Akeroyd，2008；Humes，2007；Humes&Dubno，2010；Humes，Kidd，&Lentz，2013)。一个有希望的假说是，在存在竞争声音的情况下，有效的言语理解很大程度上依赖于遵循话语的时间结构并通过注意携带过程准确预测言语事件的时间安排的能力。根据夹带假说(参见Large&Jones，1999；McAuley等人，2006)，注意跟踪语音的时间模式的能力通过提高对与说话者的时间模式相对应的言语事件的注意力，帮助听话者在知觉上隔离和解决单个说话者的言语细节。此外，建议通过话语的不可听部分或部分可听部分来准确地外推时间模式，以通过将它们合并到共同的时间框架中来促进对语音的间歇性“一瞥”的整合。这一一般性假设将通过一系列实验来研究，这些实验在言语环境中测试夹带理论的预测，并结合评估个体夹带能力差异的新测试电池。将对1000名有听力损失和没有听力损失的年轻和老年听众进行样本测试，使用成形放大来确保听力受损的听众的听力。该项目将采用行为和神经生理学方法相结合的方法来确定夹带能力与语音理解的关系，同时控制个人在基本听觉能力和认知能力方面的差异，这些差异以前被证明对语音感知很重要。

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.