Efferent Auditory Measurements during Continuous Attended Speech in Normal Hearing Listeners With and Without Speech-in-Noise Deficits

有或没有噪声中言语缺陷的正常听力听众连续听讲讲话时的传出听觉测量

• 批准号: 10904248
• 负责人: Spencer Smith
• 金额: $ 7.7万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10904248
• 关键词: Academic achievement; Acoustic Nerve; Active Listening; Adult; Algorithms; Amplifiers; Animals; Attention; Auditory; Auditory system; Biological Assay; Biophysics; Brain; Brain Stem; Clinical; Clinical assessments; Cochlea; Cochlear Implants; Cognitive; Communication impairment; Contralateral; Development; Frequencies; Glean; Goals; Hearing Aids; Hearing Tests; Human; Impairment; Individual; Labyrinth; Lesion; Light; Measurement; Measures; Mechanics; Medial; Methods; Modeling; Nervous System; Neurobiology; Noise; Outcomes Research; Outer Hair Cells; Patients; Perception; Performance; Physiological; Play; Proxy; Reflex action; Research; Research Project Grants; Role; Signal Transduction; Site; Speech; Speech Perception; Statistical Models; Stimulus; Structure of tractus olivocochlearis; System; Time; Vocation; Withdrawal; Work; attentional modulation; auditory pathway; base; brain computer interface; experimental study; improved; neural; neural circuit; neurophysiology; noise perception; normal hearing; otoacoustic emission; outcome disparities; personalized diagnostics; predictive test; response; social; speech in noise; speech processing; standard measure; targeted treatment; treatment strategy

PROJECT SUMMARY Audiologists frequently encounter patients who complain of speech-in-noise perception difficulties despite having normal hearing sensitivity. The neurobiological bases of such deficits are currently debated and remain unknown, which limits development of precision diagnostics and targeted treatment strategies to help these patients. As a consequence, many may suffer untreated and debilitating communication impairments in real world situations, causing social withdrawal, limiting academic achievement, and/or constraining vocational opportunities. Limited evidence suggests that the efferent auditory pathway, which descends from the brain to the inner ears and putatively filters out noise before it enters the nervous system, may be impaired in some of these patients. This research project investigates relationships between inner ear efferent activity and subcortical processing of speech-in-noise during active listening in audiometrically-normal adults with and without clinically-documented speech-in-noise deficits. Specifically, we have developed a method for simultaneously measuring pre-neural (i.e., otoacoustic emissions; OAE) and neural (i.e., frequency following responses) biophysical responses evoked by naturalistic continuous speech. This approach makes it possible, for the first time, to directly study the influence of cochlear efferent effects on neural processing and perception of speech-in-noise. We hypothesize that: 1) “traditional” passive assays of cochlear efferent activity (i.e., OAE inhibition with contralateral noise) underestimate efferent modulation of cochlear mechanics during active listening to speech-in-noise; 2) attentional modulation of cochlear activity predicts attentional modulation of subcortical neural activity; and 3) cochlear and neural attention modulation effects can be used to statistically model speech-in-noise perceptual performance. The outcomes of this research will clarify the role of the efferent system in naturalistic speech-in- noise processing and may elucidate “sites of lesion” responsible for speech-in-noise deficits in audiometrically- normal listeners. Further, our findings may inform development of assistive listening devices and/or brain- computer interfaces that are inspired by typical neurophysiologic auditory function to aid listeners with speech- in-noise deficits.

项目总结