Using touch to enhance auditory perception

即使配备了现代助听器，在嘈杂的环境中听不清单一的声音或对话也是听力障碍患者的主要挫折之一。与声音相结合的触觉被广泛应用于手机和视频游戏控制器等普通技术中。这项研究调查了触觉刺激（比如手腕上的振动），如果与我们周围的声音同步，是否可以提高我们在嘈杂环境中区分不同声源（比如声音）的能力。这项研究旨在证明这种方法对帮助听力损失患者的好处，听力损失导致生活质量显著下降，影响工作效率，影响英国六分之一的人，每年花费4.5亿英镑。声源可以根据不同的音高、位置和时间来区分：人们以不同的速度说话，在不同的时间开始/停止说话。用来区分声音的主要特征之一是所谓的基本频率，例如，男性的声音听起来往往比女性的声音低。我们能够在相同的基本频率范围内分辨触觉振动。如果一些重要的声音信息（可能是由于听力损失而丢失的）被自动转化为触觉刺激，这是否有助于区分不同的声音？这项研究将使用精心设计的声音和触摸刺激组合的行为实验来回答这个问题。它旨在展示这种方法如何发挥最佳效果的限制，首先是对听力正常的听众，然后是对听力损失的人。这项研究将得到计算模型的支持，以模拟大脑中结合听觉和触觉信息的处理过程。这将有助于把我们自己从行为实验中得到的发现与脑成像研究和其他方法联系起来，这些方法用于理解声音是如何与来自其他感官的信息一起处理的。总而言之，该项目研究了触觉如何影响声源分离，听觉受损如何改变其影响，以及大脑如何通过计算将不同感官的信息结合起来。这些进展将为改进策略和技术提供知识基础，通过支持开发通过触摸刺激（例如手腕上的触摸刺激）增强的助听器来帮助听力受损的人。

Difficulty in following a single voice or conversation in noisy situations is one of the main frustrations for people with hearing impairment, even when fitted with modern hearing aids. Tactile (touch) sensation combined with sound is widely used in commonplace technology like mobile phones and video game controllers. This research investigates whether tactile stimulation (e.g. vibrations on the wrist), if synchronised with the sound around us, could improve our ability to separate out different sound sources (e.g. voices) in noisy situations. The research aims to demonstrate the benefit of this approach to help people with hearing loss, which leads to significantly reduced quality of life, impacts productivity in working life, affects 1 in 6 individuals in the UK and costs the NHS of 450 million pounds per year.Sound sources can be separated based on differences in e.g. their pitch, location and timing: people talk at different speeds and start/stop stop talking at different times. One of the main features used to distinguish voices is their so-called fundamental frequency, e.g. male voices tend to sound lower than female voices. We are able to distinguish tactile vibrations in this same range of fundamental frequencies. If some important sound information, perhaps missing due to hearing loss, is automatically transformed into tactile stimulation, could this help to separate one voice from another? This research will use behavioural experiments with carefully designed combinations of sound and touch stimuli to answer this question. It aims to demonstrate the constraints for how this approach works best, firstly for normal-hearing listeners and then for people with hearing loss. The research will be supported by computational modelling to simulate processing in the brain that combines information from our senses of hearing and touch. This will help to link our own findings from behavioural experiments to research with brain imaging and other approaches used to understand how sound is processed with information from other senses. In summary, the project investigates how tactile sensation affects sound source separation, how its effect is modified with impaired hearing and how information across the senses is combined through computations in the brain. These advances will provide a foundation of knowledge to improve strategies and technology to help with people impaired hearing by supporting the development of hearing aids that are enhanced by touch stimulation, e.g. on the wrist.