How voice familiarity facilitates intelligibility of degraded and masked speech

跟随和理解一个特定的对话伙伴，尽管有其他来源的干扰，这是我们大多数人每天都要完成的壮举。然而，需要许多处理操作，使得当听到由许多不同声源（及其回声）组成的复杂听觉信号时，特别是一个源（即，语音）可以被识别、跟踪和理解。我的学员和我研究经验和先验知识如何融入语音听力和理解，特别是在嘈杂的日常条件下。知识导向的流程（例如，使用有意义的上下文来感知地填充“掩蔽的或降级的语音”）可以显著地改善感知组织和语音感知，但是通常需要注意力，这可能是为什么在嘈杂的社交环境中进行通信是费力的并且通常令人沮丧的。一个未被充分研究的基于知识的因素，可能会提高理解，而实际上减少听力的努力是熟悉说话者的声音。 Johnsrude等人（2013）证明，人们可以利用对非常熟悉的声音（他们配偶的声音）的了解，不仅可以在干扰陌生人的声音存在时更好地跟踪它，而且可以忽略它，以便更有效地理解陌生人的声音。这项初步研究表明，来自特定的声音经验的线索是潜在的非常重要的促进剂的语音理解在自然的情况下，但几乎没有什么是知道的。本文提出的研究将开始填补这一空白，通过四个目标：**1）检查多少经验，什么样的，是需要的声音变得熟悉，以有利于可懂度; *2）确定声音的声学特征，这是最重要的，使熟悉的声音的好处; *3）检查是否声音熟悉减少听力努力;*4）比较支持熟悉和不熟悉声音中言语感知的神经（和认知）机制。**我的研究计划的目标是开发一个更详细的理论帐户如何熟悉的声音有助于理解退化和掩蔽语音。这项工作对于我们理解言语理解的认知过程和解决现实世界言语理解受损的问题都具有变革性意义。这是必要的第一步：开发听力假体，保留增强语音清晰度的基本线索;使我们能够改善学校和公共场所的听力环境，以便利用熟悉的语音信息;并使老年人能够在具有挑战性的听力环境中更全面地利用熟悉的语音信息。

Following and understanding one particular conversational partner, despite interference from other sources, is a feat most of us accomplish every day. However, many processing operations are required so that, when hearing a complex auditory signal consisting of many different sources of sound (and their echoes), one source in particular (i.e., a voice) can be identified, tracked, and understood. My trainees and I study how experience and prior knowledge feed into voice listening and comprehension, particularly in noisy, everyday, conditions. Knowledge-guided processes (e.g., the use of meaningful context to perceptually fill in' masked or degraded speech) can dramatically improve perceptual organization and speech perception, but often require attention, which is probably why communicating in noisy social situations is effortful and often frustrating. One underexplored knowledge-based factor that may enhance comprehension while actually reducing listening effort is familiarity with a talker's voice. Johnsrude et al (2013) demonstrated that people can exploit knowledge of a highly familiar voice (their spouse's) not only to track it better in the presence of an interfering stranger's voice, but also to ignore it so as to comprehend a stranger's voice more effectively. This preliminary study indicates that cues derived from experience with particular voices are potentially highly significant facilitators of speech comprehension in naturalistic situations; but almost nothing is known about them. The research proposed here will begin to fill this gap, through four aims:******1) to examine how much experience, and what kind, is required for voices to become familiar so as to benefit intelligibility; ***2) to identify the acoustic characteristics of voices that are most important for enabling familiar-voice benefit; ***3) to examine whether voice familiarity reduces listening effort; ***4) to compare the neural (and cognitive) mechanisms supporting perception of speech in familiar and unfamiliar voices.******The goal of my research program is to develop a more detailed theoretical account of how familiar voices contribute to comprehension of degraded and masked speech. This work is transformational both for our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying speech comprehension, and for tackling the problem of impaired real-world speech comprehension. It is a necessary first step to: developing hearing prostheses that preserve essential cues that enhance intelligibility of a voice; enabling us to improve listening environments in schools and public places so familiar-voice information can be exploited; and enabling older people to take more complete advantage of familiar-voice information in challenging listening environments.