Predicting listeners' attentional bias toward the human voice: perceptual, neural, and semantic factors.

预测听众对人声的注意力偏差：感知、神经和语义因素。

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04413
• 负责人: derNederlanden, Christina
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=764193
• 关键词: Predicting; listeners; attentional; bias; toward

Picture a girl playing on the playground: She hears the roar of wind in the trees, the whirr of cars driving by, the voice of another child talking to her, and music emanating from an electronic toy. She could attend to any one of these sounds, and yet her attention is likely to be quickly grasped by the human voice. One of the most common tasks humans do on a daily basis is selectively attend to sounds that are relevant for communication, while actively ignoring other sounds that are so prevalent in our busy auditory environments. This is a surprisingly complex job, especially for developing listeners, and yet my previous research uncovered a persistent attentional bias toward speech in complex scenes for infants, children, and adults. My research program is designed to uncover how it is that listeners of all ages are biased to attend to speech in busy acoustic environments, when many other sounds compete for attention. The goal of this work is to characterize the perceptual, cognitive, and neural building blocks of human communication in real-world scenarios from infancy to adulthood. Although listeners of all ages show an attentional speech bias in complex scenes, the factors that drive attention toward speech from infancy to adulthood may differ due to burgeoning cognitive abilities. Using a two-stage approach, I first propose behavioural studies that characterize acoustic and semantic drivers of the attentional speech bias in early childhood and adulthood. Second, I explore a neural index of attention to speech and non-speech sounds in complex scenes using non-the invasive neuroimaging technique of EEG. This NSERC DG proposal will uncover how listeners of all ages are biased to attend to speech in complex scenes through the following questions: 1. What is the attentional speech bias? A bias toward certain types of salient acoustic characteristics or a bias toward semantically meaningful signals? 2. Do the drivers of the attentional speech bias change in childhood to adulthood because of perceptual and cognitive development in infants and preschoolers? 3. Can neural measures be used to index attention to speech and non-speech sounds in busy scenes, especially in infancy? An in-depth understanding of our remarkable ability to attend to speech in busy listening settings will lead to the development of early and effective interventions for listeners of all ages that struggle to comprehend speech in busy scenes. We will develop innovative neural methods that provide a window into the infant listening experience and will characterize the typical attentional hierarchy for real world sounds in complex scenes. These findings can be leveraged in workplaces where detecting a change can be mission critical, such as the Armed Forces. Together the behavioural and neural studies outlined in this proposal will move basic science one step closer to understanding how humans of all ages successfully communicate in the real world.

想象一个女孩在操场上玩耍：她听到风在树上的呼啸声，汽车驶过的嗡嗡声，另一个孩子和她说话的声音，以及电子玩具发出的音乐。她可以注意到这些声音中的任何一个，但是她的注意力很可能很快就被人类的声音抓住了。人类每天最常见的任务之一就是选择性地关注与交流相关的声音，而主动忽略在我们繁忙的听觉环境中如此普遍的其他声音。这是一项非常复杂的工作，尤其是对发展中的听众来说，然而我之前的研究发现，在复杂的场景中，婴儿、儿童和成人的注意力会持续倾向于言语。我的研究项目旨在揭示，当许多其他声音在争夺注意力时，在嘈杂的声音环境中，所有年龄段的听众是如何倾向于关注语音的。这项工作的目标是描述从婴儿到成年的现实世界场景中人类交流的感知、认知和神经构建模块。尽管所有年龄段的听者在复杂场景中都表现出注意力语言偏差，但从婴儿期到成年期，促使注意力转向语言的因素可能因认知能力的发展而有所不同。使用两阶段的方法，我首先提出行为研究表征幼儿和成年期注意言语偏见的声学和语义驱动因素。其次，利用脑电图的非侵入性神经成像技术，探索复杂场景中语音和非语音注意的神经指标。这项NSERC DG提案将通过以下问题揭示所有年龄段的听众是如何倾向于关注复杂场景中的演讲的：什么是注意言语偏差？是偏爱某些类型的显著声学特征，还是偏爱语义上有意义的信号？2. 幼儿和学龄前儿童的知觉和认知发展是否会导致注意言语偏见的驱动因素在儿童期到成年期发生变化？3. 神经测量是否可以用于在繁忙的场景中，特别是在婴儿时期，对语音和非语音的注意力进行索引？深入了解我们在繁忙的听力环境中注意言语的非凡能力，将有助于开发早期有效的干预措施，帮助所有年龄段的听众在繁忙的场景中努力理解言语。我们将开发创新的神经方法，为婴儿听力体验提供一个窗口，并将描述复杂场景中真实世界声音的典型注意层次。这些发现可以在工作场所发挥作用，在这些工作场所，检测变化可能是关键任务，例如武装部队。该提案中概述的行为和神经研究将使基础科学更接近于理解所有年龄段的人类如何在现实世界中成功沟通。