Brainstem enhancement of stimulus regularities with auditory expertise

描述(申请人提供)：在嘈杂的房间里听到讲话对每个人来说都是困难的，但孩子们特别容易受到背景噪音的有害影响。人们认为，从相互竞争的噪声中提取语音的能力取决于神经系统如何识别目标声音(例如，说话者的声音)中的统计模式，并在抑制神经对背景噪声的反应的同时跟踪它们。具体地说，听觉脑干对正在进行的语音流中的模式表现出增强的反应的程度与对噪声中的语音的感知有关。我们不知道儿童时期的听觉训练，如音乐训练，如何使大脑系统在噪音中听到语言时受益，尽管有证据表明成年人有这种效果。考虑到声音模式是音乐的基石，有助于感知调性、节奏和节拍，以及音乐主题的结构性使用，音乐训练增强神经系统从说话规则中获利的能力并不令人惊讶。该项目旨在评估儿童时期音乐训练对皮质下大脑系统的发育影响，该系统是3岁儿童在背景噪音中听到语言的能力的基础。具体地说，对可预测和可变的语音模式的听觉脑干反应以及在噪声能力下听力言语的测量将在3岁以下的儿童中获得，无论是否接受过音乐培训。我们假设，与没有参加过音乐训练的儿童相比，有音乐专长的儿童表现出对可预测语言的神经增强，这种增强随着发展和多年的音乐实践而增加。这种神经增强在音乐家儿童中观察到，背景是在噪音中听力语言的行为表现更好。结果将提高我们对听觉专业知识如何塑造感觉处理(例如，在具有挑战性的听力环境中)及其对大脑如何利用信号规则的影响的知识。结果还可能有助于提高对噪音排除缺陷儿童的教育和补救计划的效率，包括患有发育性阅读障碍、特定语言障碍和听觉处理障碍等临床障碍的儿童。 与公共健康相关：该项目的结果可能解释听觉专业知识如何影响大脑在嘈杂环境中处理语音的方式，例如老师在繁忙的教室里讲话。这些发现可能有助于提高针对在背景噪音中有听力障碍的儿童的补救计划的有效性，包括有基于语言的学习障碍的儿童，此外还为使用音乐作为听觉补救策略奠定基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hearing speech in noisy rooms is difficult for everyone, but children are particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of background noise. It is thought that the ability to pull out speech from competing noise depends on how the nervous system recognizes statistical patterns in the target sound (e.g., a speaker's voice) and tracks them while supresing neural responses to the background noise. Specifically, the degree to which the auditory brainstem demonstrates enhanced responses to patterns in the ongoing speech stream relates to the perception of speech in noise. We do not know how auditory training during childhood, such as musical training, may benefit brain systems for hearing speech in noise, despite evidence to this effect in adults. For musical training to enhance the nervous system's ability to profit from regularities in speech would not be surprising given that sound paterns are the building blocks of music, contributing to the perception of tonality, rhythm and meter, and the structural use of musical themes. This project aims to evaluate the developmental impact of musical training during childhood on subcortical brain systems that underlie the ability to hear speech in background noise in children as young as 3 years of age. Specifically, auditory brainstem responses to predictable and variable speech patterns and measures of hearing speech in noise ability will be obtained in children as young as 3 years of age with and without musical training. We hypothesize that children with musical expertise demonstrate increased neural enhancement of predictable speech, compared with children who have not participated in musical training, with this enhancement increasing with both development and years of musical practice. This neural enhancement is observed in musician children in the context of better behavioral performance for hearing speech in noise. Results will improve our knowledge of how auditory expertise shapes sensory processing (e.g., in challenging listening environments) and its impact on how the brain utilizes signal regularities. Results may also contribute to the improved efficacy of educational and remedial programs for children with noise-exclusion deficits, including children with clinical disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment and auditory processing disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Results from this project may explain how auditory expertise shapes how the brain deals with speech in noisy environments, such as a teacher speaking in a bustling classroom. Findings may contribute to the improved efficacy of remedial programs for children who have problems hearing speech in background noise, including children who have language-based learning impairment, in addition to laying the groundwork for employing music as a strategy for auditory remediation.