CENTER FOR PERCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION IN CHILDREN

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童感知和沟通中心（CPCC）是内布拉斯加州奥马哈男孩镇国家研究医院（BTNRH）的一个COBRE，其目标是通过为对理解儿童听力损失对言语和语言感知和处理的影响感兴趣的初级教师的发展提供一个独特的环境，扩大当前研究项目的范围。并最终描述听力损失儿童在现实世界中的表现。我们的目标是扩大研究项目，在其目前对听觉系统外围功能的重视基础上，包括对更复杂问题的最新研究，如听力损失对现实环境（包括教室）中的表现的影响，自下而上和自上而下的处理对儿童学习英语作为第二语言的贡献，语音和语言习得中视觉和听觉信息的整合，助听器性能的调整促进了与听力损失相关的前庭缺陷的颞加工发展和视觉加工的后果。这些课题的研究将由管理核心促进，管理核心将协调与外部咨询委员会和外部导师的互动，技术核心将为硬件和软件开发，信号处理和室内声学问题提供支持，临床测量核心将收集临床数据，实施质量保证程序并协助选择和解释临床测量。CPCC将受益于作为核心主任和导师的资深教师的综合研究经验，以及BTNRH独特的患者资源和转化研究环境。未来的计划要求继续扩大研究项目，利用目前正在开发的神经成像设备，包括对正常听力儿童的言语/语言和认知功能的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the Center for Perception and Communication in Children (CPCC), a COBRE at the Boys Town National Research Hospital (BTNRH) in Omaha, Nebraska, is to expand the range of the current research program by providing a unique environment for the development of junior faculty who have an interest in understanding the consequences of childhood hearing loss for speech and language perception and processing, and ultimately describing performance of children with hearing loss in the real world. Our goal is to broaden the research program, building on its current emphasis on peripheral function in the auditory system to include state-of-the-art work on more complex issues such as the impact of hearing loss on performance in real-world environments including classrooms, the contributions of bottom-up and top down processing in children learning English as a second language, integration of visual and auditory information in speech and language acquisition, the adjustment of hearing-aid properties to promote development of temporal processing and the consequences for visual processing of vestibular deficits associated with hearing loss. Research on these topics will be facilitated by an Administration Core that will coordinate interaction with an External Advisory Committee and external mentors, a Technical Core that will provide support for hardware and software development, signal processing and room-acoustics issues and a Clinical Measurement Core that will collect clinical data, implement quality assurance procedures and assist with selection and interpretation of clinical measures. The CPCC will benefit from combined research experience of the senior faculty who will serve as core directors and mentors and from the unique patient resources and translational research environment at BTNRH. Future plans call for continued expansion of the research program to include work on speech/ language and cognitive function in children with normal hearing, taking advantage of neural imaging facilities currently under development.