High-Frequency Hearing Loss and Early Aging Effects on Auditory Temporal Coding

高频听力损失和早期衰老对听觉时间编码的影响

• 批准号: 9267361
• 负责人: Elizabeth D. Leigh
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: JAMES H QUILLEN VA MEDICAL CENTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9267361
• 关键词: Accounting; Acoustics; Address; Adult; Affect; Age; Aging; Audiology; Audiometry; Auditory; Auditory Evoked Potentials; Auditory system; Basic Science; Behavioral; Binaural; Clinic; Clinical; Code; Complex; Computer software; Detection; Development; Devices; Diagnostic; Discrimination; Electrophysiology (science); Equipment; Experimental Designs; FarGo; Florida; Frequencies; General Population; Goals; Hearing; Hearing Aids; High-Frequency Hearing Loss; Home environment; Impairment; Individual; Instruction; Knowledge; Literature; Masks; Measurement; Measures; Mentors; Methods; Noise; Participant; Patients; Perception; Performance; Physiological; Play; Process; Psychophysics; Recovery; Recruitment Activity; Rehabilitation therapy; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Sensorineural Hearing Loss; Series; Short-Term Memory; Signal Transduction; Speech; Speech Perception; Stimulus; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Time; Training; Translating; United States; Universities; Veterans; Wisconsin; age effect; age related; aged; base; body system; experience; hearing impairment; improved; insight; laboratory experience; male; men; middle age; relating to nervous system; research study; response; signal processing; skills; speech processing; young adult

DESCRIPTION: Temporal coding is the ability of the auditory system to detect and transmit fluctuations in time across the acoustic signal. Sensorineural hearing loss and early aging have the potential to reduce the temporal resolving power of the auditory system. The relevant literature, however, shows mixed results from psychophysical studies, speech perception studies, and physiologic studies. The lack of a clear understanding of how hearing loss changes temporal processing (or not) may be the result of several factors including early age-related changes in neural recovery or adaptation and methodological issues (e.g., equivalent presentation levels, stimulus complexity). A series of experiments to measure temporal processing in middle-aged adults with and without high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (abbreviated as HFL throughout proposal) is proposed. This understudied group has been largely overlooked in the study of auditory aging because most older subjects have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss and research is often conducted in low-frequency regions where pure-tone thresholds are similar to those of younger subjects. Presenescent changes have been found for speech perception (Helfer and Fargo, 2009) and for auditory temporal coding (Grose et al., 2006). Significantly poorer gap detection occurs for stimuli presented in regions of normal pure-tone sensitivity when high-frequency hearing loss is present. The proposed research will improve our understanding of early aging and HFL on auditory temporal coding. The purpose of the primary study is to determine the extent to which early aging and HFL impact temporal coding in regions of normal low-frequency hearing. The current study addresses these purposes with the following three specific questions: (1) Is there a significant difference in low-frequency temporal coding between listeners with normal pure-tone sensitivity and listeners with HFL? (2) Is there a significant difference in temporal coding between young subjects (aged 18 - 30 years) and middle-aged subjects (aged 40 - 60 years) who have normal pure-tone sensitivity? and (3) Are psychophysical or electrophysiologic measures of temporal coding related? Four groups of subjects will be targeted for a series of experiments as follows: (1) young adults with normal pure-tone sensitivity (YNH), (2) middle-aged adults with normal pure-tone sensitivity (MANH), (3) young adults with HFL (YHFL), and (4) middle-aged adults with HFL (MAHFL). Normal hearing will be defined as pure-tone thresholds d25 dB HL for the frequencies from 250- to 8000 Hz. High-frequency hearing will be defined as pure-tone thresholds d25 dB HL from 250 - 2000 Hz and e 35 dB HL from 3000 - 8000 Hz. Participants will be recruited from the Audiology Clinic at the VA at Mountain Home. One short-term objective is to acquire a high-level of technical understanding of signal processing and experimental design as well as insight into parallel experimental designs in multiple domains (e.g., clinical audiology, psychophysics, and electrophysiology). The new skills will provide a bridge between my basic research skills acquired to date and advanced skills necessary to transition into an independent VA investigator. A second short-term goal is to acquire the experience needed to analyze cortical auditory evoked potentials, which inherently are complex. Thus, the focus will be practical and theoretical integration by leveraging the expertise of the CDA-2 mentors (Drs. Murnane, Eddins, and Fowler).

产品说明： 时间编码是听觉系统检测和传输声学信号中时间波动的能力。感音神经性听力损失和早期衰老有可能降低听觉系统的时间分辨能力。然而，相关的文献显示了来自心理物理学研究、言语感知研究和生理学研究的混合结果。缺乏对听力损失如何改变时间处理（或不）的清晰理解可能是几个因素的结果，包括神经恢复或适应的早期年龄相关变化和方法问题（例如，等效呈现水平、刺激复杂度）。本文提出了一系列实验来测量有和没有高频感音神经性听力损失（HFL）的中年人的时间加工。这个未充分研究的群体在听觉衰老研究中在很大程度上被忽视了，因为大多数老年受试者都有一定程度的高频听力损失，并且研究通常在低频区域进行，其中纯音阈值与年轻受试者相似。已经发现言语感知（Helfer和Fargo，2009）和听觉时间编码（Grose等人，2006年）。当存在高频听力损失时，对于正常纯音灵敏度区域中呈现的刺激，间隙检测明显较差。本研究将有助于加深我们对早期衰老和听觉时间编码的HFL的理解。主要研究的目的是确定早期衰老和HFL在多大程度上影响正常低频听力区域的时间编码。本研究通过以下三个具体问题来解决这些问题：（1）纯音敏感度正常的人和HFL患者的低频时间编码是否存在显著差异？(2)纯音敏感度正常的年轻人（18 - 30岁）和中年人（40 - 60岁）的时间编码是否存在显著差异？（3）时间编码的心理物理或电生理测量是否相关？将针对四组受试者进行一系列实验，如下：（1）具有正常纯音灵敏度（YNH）的年轻人，（2）具有正常纯音灵敏度（MANH）的中年人，（3）具有HFL的年轻人（YHFL），和（4）具有HFL的中年人（MAHFL）。正常听力定义为频率为250- 8000 Hz的纯音阈值d25 dB HL。高频听力将被定义为纯音阈值d25 dB HL（250 - 2000 Hz）和e35 dB HL（3000 - 8000 Hz）。参与者将从山居的VA听力诊所招募。一个短期目标是获得对信号处理和实验设计的高水平技术理解，以及对多个领域（例如，临床听力学、心理物理学和电生理学）。新的技能将提供我的基本研究技能之间的桥梁获得日期和先进的必要技能过渡到一个独立的VA调查。第二个短期目标是获得分析皮层听觉诱发电位所需的经验，这本身就很复杂。因此，重点将是通过利用CDA-2导师（Murnane，Eddins和Fowler博士）的专业知识进行实践和理论整合。