Development and plasticity in normal and impaired ears

描述（由申请人提供）：长期目标是更好地理解让我们在背景噪音中听到的听觉过程，以及早期听力损失对这些过程的影响。目的1将调查假设，儿童需要更多的时间细节水平的言语识别比成人。目的还将探讨感觉神经性听力损失对听障儿童在噪声环境中言语加工的影响。这些研究将评估一种假设，即听力受损儿童可能处于特别不利的地位，因为语言感知可能不仅受到听力损失因素的阻碍，而且还受到与有限的言语/语言经验相关的因素的阻碍。目的2和3分别研究单耳和双耳的时间分辨率。目的2将研究儿童单声时间分辨能力的发展。这项工作将验证一个假设，即儿童可能在时间处理中表现出普遍的发育缺陷，这是由于刺激信息随时间的加权效率不高。目的3研究了双耳频谱分辨率（宽双耳临界带）可以完全根据以信号频率为中心的左右听觉滤波器的输出来计算的可能性。一个关键的假设是，随着噪声带宽的增加和越来越宽间隔的频谱成分之间的相互作用影响刺激包络和与双耳差异线索相关的变化率，双耳时间加工的限制会降低双耳的灵敏度。提出了一系列实验，使我们能够在该假设和当前流行的假设之间进行测试，该假设认为宽双二进制临界频带是由于掩码带宽增加时跨信道信号可用性的变化造成的。心理声学研究将使用标准的自适应测试技术，语音将使用自适应和固定块方法的结合。项目的所有阶段都将包括年龄匹配的对照听众。数据将使用方差分析和相关程序进行分析。拟议的工作与公共卫生的关系有两个方面：1)听力损失研究的数据将提供有关早期听力损失对语言感知发展的影响的信息；2)对正常听力儿童和成人的听力能力的研究将提供关于人类在噪音中听到信号的能力的信息，这是听力损失患者最常见的问题。这个项目与公共卫生直接相关，因为它调查了感觉神经性听力损失儿童可能出现的听力残疾形式。该项目还研究了在背景噪音中听到信号的听觉过程。这与公共卫生有关，因为在背景噪音中听力差是感觉神经性听力损失患者最常见的主诉。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term aim is a better understanding of the auditory processes that allow us to hear in background noise, and the effect of early hearing loss on those processes. Aim 1 will investigate the hypothesis that children require a greater level of temporal detail for speech identification than adults. The aim will also investigate the effect of sensori-neural hearing loss on the processing of speech in noise by hearing-impaired children. These studies will evaluate the hypothesis that hearing-impaired children may be at particular disadvantage because speech perception may be impeded not only by hearing loss factors, but also by factors related to limited speech/language experience. Aims 2 and 3 investigate monaural and binaural temporal resolution, respectively. Aim 2 will investigate the development of monaural temporal resolution in children. This work will test the hypothesis that children may exhibit a general developmental deficit in temporal processing due to inefficient weighting of stimulus information over time. Aim 3 investigates the possibility that binaural spectral resolution (the wide binaural critical band) can be acounted entirely in terms of the outputs of the left and right auditory filters centered on the signal frequency. A key hypothesis is that limitations on binaural temporal processing blunt binaural acuity as the noise bandwidth increases and interactions among increasingly widely spaced spectral components influence the stimulus envelope and the rate of change associated with binaural difference cues. A series of experiments is proposed that will allow us to test between this hypothesis and the currently popular hypothesis that the wide binarual critical band results from changes in the availability of across-channel cues with increases in masker bandwidth. Psychoacoustic studies will use standard, adaptive testing techniques, and speech will use a combination of adaptive and fixed block methods. All phases of the project will include age-matched control listeners. Data will be analyzed using analysis of variance and correlation procedures. There are two ways in which the proposed work relates to public health: 1) the data from the studies on hearing loss will provide information about the effect of early hearing loss on the development of speech perception; 2) the studies on hearing abilities in normal-hearing children and adults will provide information about human abilities to hear signals in noise, the most common problem experienced by patients having hearing losses.This project is directly relevant to public health in that it investigates possible forms of hearing disability in children who have sensori-neural hearing loss. The project also investigates hearing processes that underlie the ability to hear signals in background noise. This is relevant to public health because poor hearing in background noise is the most common complaint of patients with sensori-neural hearing loss.