Auditory processing and speech understanding

我过去的研究表明，即使声音足够响亮，其时间特性的微小扭曲也会影响听众吸收信息的程度，特别是当他们必须整合信息才能理解或记住它的时候。然而，语言环境可以减轻信号失真的有害影响，即自下而上(耳朵对大脑)和自上而下(大脑对耳朵)听力方面的相互作用调节了表现。声音的时间特性包括精细结构(音高)的快速变化和声音包络(节奏)的缓慢变化。对听力临床正常的老年人进行了研究，因为他们在使用时间线索方面的问题可能解释了他们在噪音中听力方面的困难，而年轻人在测试时表现类似，使用精细结构线索的时间扭曲来模拟老年人的时间加工问题。关于不同频率的语音能量与语音清晰度的关系，我们知道得很多，但对时间线索的作用知之甚少。此外，时间线索对于非语言信息的交流也很重要，例如说话人的身份和情感。这项拟议的研究将发现时间线索如何有助于语言和非语言(例如，情感、说话者身份)信息的提取，以及这些共存类型的信息如何相互作用。一个惊人的初步发现是，在控制了强度之后，用恐惧的声音说话比用悲伤的声音更容易理解单词。一种假设是，情感信息改变了听者注意语言信息的方式。另一种假设是，因为情感和语言暗示是同时表达的，所以说话者的运动动作会产生互动。这项研究旨在发现语言信息(说什么)和非语言信息(如何说)的同时传播如何影响口语的产生和理解。这项研究对设计通信设备(如助听器)的工程师非常感兴趣，也对心理学家、语言学家和其他希望了解人类在交流中如何使用感觉信息的人感兴趣。

My past research has shown that even when sound is loud enough, micro distortions in its temporal properties affect how well listeners uptake information, especially when they must integrate information to comprehend or remember it. However, linguistic context can mitigate the deleterious effects of signal distortions; i.e., interactions between bottom-up (ear to brain) and top-down (brain to ear) aspects of listening modulate performance. The temporal properties of sound include fast changes in the fine structure (pitch) and slow changes in the sound envelope (rhythm). Older adults with clinically normal hearing have been studied because their problems using temporal cues may explain their difficulties listening in noise and younger adults perform similarly when tested using temporal distortions of fine structure cues to simulate the temporal processing problems of older listeners. Much is known about how the amount of speech energy in different frequencies relates to speech intelligibility, but little is known about the role of temporal cues. In addition, temporal cues are important for the communication of non-linguistic information such as talker identity and emotion. The proposed research will discover how temporal cues contribute to the extraction of linguistic and non-linguistic (e.g., emotion, talker identity) information and how these co-existing types of information interact. A striking preliminary finding is that, after controlling for intensity, words are understood better when spoken in a fearful voice than in a sad voice. One hypothesis is that emotional information alters how the listener attends to linguistic information. Another hypothesis is that because emotional and linguistic cues are expressed simultaneously, the motor acts performed by a talker give rise to interactions. The proposed research aims to discover how the simultaneous communication of linguistic (what is said) and non-linguistic (how it is said) information influences the production and comprehension of spoken language. This research is of great interest to engineers designing communication devices (e.g., hearing aids), as well as being of interest to psychologists, linguists and others who wish to understand how humans use sensory information during communication.