Hearing Loss and the Perception of Complex Sound

描述(申请人提供)：感觉神经性耳聋患者在嘈杂的环境中理解语言有困难，并经常抱怨音乐听起来扭曲或令人不快。这两种缺陷都可能归因于耳蜗结构损伤的功能影响，包括听觉敏感度的丧失，响度知觉的改变，以及听觉系统中频谱和时间处理的障碍。在这个研究项目中，行为心理声学方法被用来研究与频率和时间分析有关的受损耳蜗者的缺陷，以及这些缺陷对语音的清晰理解和欣赏音乐的能力的影响。在接下来的授权期内，本研究的重点将是研究受损耳蜗区复杂声音的精细时间加工。包括对谐和非谐复和非周期波纹噪声产生的复音高的研究，对单音对和谐复对的判断和声和不和声的研究，以及对时间波形中细微结构的感知能力的研究。这些研究的目标是评估大脑中高级听觉中枢的时间间隔信息的表征，当这些中枢的输入来自受损的外周听觉系统时。人们希望，对这些研究确定的时间信息被扭曲或丢失的方式的理解将有助于理解听力障碍者在日常生活中经历的功能缺陷。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): People with sensorineural hearing loss experience difficulties understanding speech in noisy environments and often complain that music sounds distorted or unpleasant. Both of these deficits may be attributed to the functional effects of damage to cochlear structures, which include a loss of auditory sensitivity, alterations in loudness perception, and impairments of spectral and temporal processing in the auditory system. In this program of research, behavioral psychoacoustic methodologies are used to study the deficits associated with frequency and time analysis in the impaired cochlea, and the impact of those deficits on the clear understanding of speech and the ability to enjoy music. For the next grant period, the focus of this research will be the study of fine temporal processing of complex sounds in the damaged cochlea. Included are studies of complex pitch produced by harmonic and inharmonic complexes and aperiodic rippled noises, studies of the judged consonance and dissonance of pairs of tones and pairs of harmonic complexes, and studies of the ability to perceive the fine structure in temporal waveforms. The studies have as their goal the evaluation of the representation of temporal interval information in the higher auditory centers within the brain, when the inputs to those centers comes from an impaired peripheral auditory system. It is hoped that an understanding of the manner in which the temporal information is distorted or lost, as determined by these studies, will help in understanding the functional deficits experienced by hearing-impaired people in their everyday lives.