Speech Understanding In Realistic Environments

许多老年人在复杂和苛刻的环境中听不懂语言 每天都在听。使用实验室结果测量老年听障人士的言语理解困难 成年人的主要原因是由于阈值升高而导致的语言可听度下降。 考虑到语音可听性的重要性，助听器提供的放大应该会恢复重要的 并为交流提供极大的益处。然而，只有一小部分 可以从扩音中受益的老年人拥有助听器，并经常使用。缺乏 助听器的成功和满意表明，需要从根本上改变方向。这个 老年人交流用具的设计和安装应以老年人的听力表现为指导 复杂且要求苛刻的环境，包含以下固有的声音和感知变化 日常生活中的情况。因此，在项目1中，计划进行一系列试验，以解决关键问题 关于老年人在现实环境中传递的语音信息的感知。联系到 与年龄相关的听力损失的潜在机制与年龄相关的听觉功能下降，受试者将 包括具有和不具有代谢性老聋特征的老年人。AIM 1.1测试该假设 即使在可以听到的情况下，耳间电平和定时提示的有限使用也会降低双耳的优势 有听力损失和没有听力损失老年人的语音，双耳优势根据不同的 年龄相关性听力损失的表型。Aim 1.2测试了以下假设：助听器对 处理空间、双耳和时间信息是老年人使用助听器并取得成功的基础 并根据年龄相关性听力损失的表型而有所不同。进行了三项助听器试验，以 确定具有和不具有代谢性老年性耳聋特征的成年人 通过基于实验室的措施预测从放大中受益最终受益于使用听力 日常交流中的艾滋病。Aim 1.3测试了与年龄相关的言语可听性改变的假设 而在听觉注意中，增加了刺激的相似性和不确定性的影响，尤其是在逆境中 听音条件。一个长期的目标是扩展我们对导致减少的机制的了解 提高老年人在噪音中的语音理解能力，从而增强从放大中获得的好处。

Many older adults have difficulty understanding speech in complex and demanding environments typical of everyday listening. Using laboratory outcome measures, speech-understanding difficulties of older hearingimpaired adults are accounted for primarily by reductions in speech audibility due to elevated thresholds. Given the importance of speech audibility, amplification provided by a hearing aid should restore important speech information and provide significant benefit to communication. Nevertheless, only a small fraction of older adults who could benefit from amplification own hearing aids and use them regularly. The lack of success and satisfaction with hearing aids suggests that a fundamental change in direction is needed. The design and fitting of communication aids for older adults should be guided by their listening performance in complex and demanding environments that contain the acoustic and perceptual variability inherent in everyday situations. Thus, in Project 1, a series of experiments is planned to address key questions concerning older adults' perception of speech information as delivered in realistic environments. To relate age-related declines in auditory function to underlying mechanisms of age-related hearing loss, subjects will include older adults with and without characteristics of metabolic presbyacusis. Aim 1.1 tests the hypothesis that, even when audible, limited use of interaural level and timing cues reduces the binaural advantage for speech for older adults with and without hearing loss and that binaural advantages vary according to the phenotype of age-related hearing loss. Aim 1.2 tests the hypothesis that benefit of hearing aids for processing spatial, binaural, and temporal information underlies hearing-aid use and success by older adults and differs according to the phenotype of age-related hearing loss. Three hearing-aid trials are conducted to determine the extent to which adults with and without characteristics of metabolic presbyacusis who are predicted by laboratory-based measures to benefit from amplification ultimately benefit from using hearing aids in everyday communication. Aim 1.3 tests the hypothesis that age-related changes in speech audibility and in auditory attention increase the effects of stimulus similarity and uncertainty, especially in adverse listening conditions. A long-term goal is to extend our knowledge of mechanisms that account for reduced speech understanding in noise by older adults and thus enhance benefit derived from amplification.