Auditory Temporal Processing in the Aging Ear and Brain

描述（由申请人提供）：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背后的神经机制与年龄相关的变化。她提出的培训计划将允许她继续在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)课程作业、研讨会和导师的一对一指导；b)指导研究计划的实施。哈里斯博士将通过这些活动获得新的和增强的技能，这将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。本研究主要探讨老年人听觉和认知功能的年龄相关变化及其对沟通能力变化的影响。以前大多数关于时间处理的研究都集中在行为测量上，这可能受到听觉和认知功能的年龄相关下降的影响。当前研究的一个优势是在同一受试者中整合行为、电生理和功能神经影像学措施，以解开中枢听觉和认知变化对衰老大脑的影响。研究人员提出了三个具体目标来验证这一假设，即老年人听觉时间处理的下降可归因于与年龄相关的中央听觉系统缺陷和认知功能（如注意力）的变化。提出的实验将通常用于行为实验的间隙检测范式应用于电生理和功能神经成像研究。从临床角度来看，理解听觉系统的时间分辨及其潜在的神经过程可能有助于解释老年人言语理解的巨大差异。此外，了解导致听觉时间加工下降的听觉和认知因素对于制定旨在改善老年人沟通的循证和基于理论的干预策略至关重要。

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.