Auditory Temporal Processing in the Aging Ear and Brain

描述(由申请者提供)：哈里斯博士的职业目标是开发创造性的方法来研究听觉处理潜在的神经机制中与年龄相关的变化。她提出的培训计划将允许她继续接受电生理学方面的培训，并在心理物理和功能神经成像技术方面提供额外的指导。她计划的职业发展经历包括：a)课程工作、研讨会和与导师的一对一指导；以及b)实施导师的研究计划。通过这些活动，哈里斯博士将获得新的和增强的技能，这应该使她能够实现作为一名富有成效的独立调查员的长期职业目标。这项拟议的研究项目侧重于与年龄相关的听觉和认知功能变化及其对老年人交流能力变化的贡献之间的相互关系。以前对时间加工的大多数研究都集中在行为测量上，这可能会受到与年龄相关的听觉和认知功能下降的影响。目前研究的一个优势是在相同的受试者中整合了行为、电生理和功能神经成像测量，以理清中枢听觉和认知变化在老化大脑中的影响。有三个具体的目标被提出来检验这一假设，即老年人听觉时间处理能力的下降可以归因于中枢听觉系统中与年龄相关的缺陷，以及注意力等认知功能的变化。拟议的实验将通常在行为实验中使用的缺口检测范式应用于电生理学和功能神经成像研究。从临床的角度来看，了解听觉系统及其潜在的神经过程中的时间分辨率可能有助于解释老年人在言语理解方面的巨大差异。此外，对导致听觉时间加工下降的听觉和认知因素的了解，对于开发旨在改善老年人沟通的循证和理论干预策略至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dr. Harris' career goals are to develop creative approaches to the study of age-related changes in the neural mechanisms underlying auditory processing. Her proposed training plan will allow her to continue her training in electrophysiology and provide additional mentorship in psychophysical and functional neuroimaging techniques. Her planned career development experiences include: a) course work, seminars, and one-on-one instruction with her mentors; and b) implementation of the mentored research plan. The new and enhanced skills Dr. Harris will acquire as a result of these activities should enable her to achieve her long-term career goal as a productive independent investigator. The proposed research project focuses on the interrelationships between age-related changes in auditory and cognitive function and their contributions to changes in communication abilities of older adults. Most previous studies of temporal processing have focused on behavioral measures, which may be affected by age-related declines in both auditory and cognitive functions. A strength of the current studies is the integration of behavioral, electrophysiological, and functional neuroimaging measures within the same subjects to disentangle the effects of central auditory and cognitive changes in the aging brain. Three specific aims are proposed to test the hypothesis that declines in auditory temporal processing in older adults can be attributed to age-related deficits in the central auditory systems, and changes in cognitive functions, such as attention. The proposed experiments adapt a gap detection paradigm typically used in behavioral experiments to electrophysiologic and functional neuroimaging studies. From a clinical standpoint, understanding temporal resolution in the auditory system and its underlying neural processes may help explain the large variance in speech understanding in older adults. Furthermore, knowledge of the auditory and cognitive factors contributing to declines in auditory temporal processing is critical for the development of evidence-based and theory-based intervention strategies designed to improve communication by older adults.