SPEECH PERCEPTION UNDER NON-OPTIMAL CONDITIONS IN AGING

“鸡尾酒会效应”指的是人类 在声学环境中收听对话，其中 几个人同时在说话。 这种能力是众所周知的。 经常在衰老中受损，从而导致老年人 一个人退出社会的年龄时，他/她仍然可以 有很多贡献。 为减轻这种损害所作的努力 由于它的精确特征 在年轻人中，也不是老年人崩溃的原因， 目前了解。 本研究的目的是（1）评估言语 老年听众对语音噪声的感知，并将其与 全面的听觉表现能力，（2） 比较老年人在语音噪声中的语音感知性能 以及听力正常或受损的年轻听众， (3)来研究听觉分辨和选择性注意 信号在空间上分离或在同一通道中混合， 在老年人和年轻人中。 部分目标需要测试大量老年人 而另一部分则需要测试少量的 年轻的正常人在很长一段时间里的表现。 的 目标将通过使用标准和新开发的 听力测试以及标准的心理物理技术。 空间听力的评估将在模拟环境中完成。 自由场 听觉性能特征 将基于先进的统计数据， 分析技术。 这项研究的主要社会医学意义在于 它是针对广泛的语言障碍， 老年人的沟通。 其临床意义在于 它将尝试区分外围设备和 损害的核心组成部分。 其科学意义 包括（1）确定“鸡尾酒会”的地点 在听力学、心理物理学和 认知能力，（2）表征一些最重要的 重要的心理声学和认知组成部分， 现象

The term "cocktail-party effect" refers to the human ability of listening to a conversation in an acoustic environment in which several persons are talking simultaneously. This ability is known to often become impaired in aging, thereby causing an elderly person to withdraw from society at an age when he/she could still have much to contribute. Efforts to alleviate this impairment have been impeded by the fact that neither its precise characteristics in the young, nor the causes of its breakdown in the old, are currently understood. The objective of the proposed research is (1) to assess speech perception in speech noise by elderly listeners and relate this ability to a comprehensive auditory performance profile, (2) to compare speech perception performance in speech noise by elderly and young listeners having either normal or impaired hearing, and (3) to investigate auditory resolution of, and selective attention to, signals separated in space or mixed in the same channel, both in elderly and in young listeners. Part of the objectives require testing a large number of elderly subjects, whereas another part necessitates testing a small number of young, normal subjects over a long period of time. The objectives will be achieved by using standard and newly developed audiological tests as well as standard psychophysical techniques. Assessment of spatial hearing will be accomplished in simulated free field. Characterization of the auditory performance profile of the various subject groups will be based on advanced statistical analysis techniques. The major socio-medical significance of the proposed study lies in that it is directed toward a wide-spread impairment of verbal communication in the elderly. Its clinical significance lies in that it will attempt to differentiate between peripheral and central components of the impairment. Its scientific relevance consists (1) of determining the place of the "cocktail-party effect" in an overall picture of audiological, psychophysical, and cognitive abilities, and (2) of characterizing some of the most important psychoacoustic and cognitive components of the phenomenon.