MONAURAL AND BINARUAL SPECTRO/TEMPORAL PROCESSING

描述：（来自提案）正常和受损听觉感知的表征必然需要理解简单和复杂的听觉信号是如何被感知和编码的。这一研究领域的一个空白是一个全球性或统一的框架，以了解这种处理，因为它涉及到正常和听力受损的听众的日常交流。这项建议要求支持进行一项综合研究，重点是感知自然环境中声音的频谱和时间模式特征。一个长期的目标是提供一个全球性的解释频谱和时间包络感知。这里要测试的一个特定假设是，包络变化（频谱或时间）的感知与中枢听觉系统中特定于域的包络通道介导的一组一般物理约束一致。提出了两组信道，时间和频谱，其被调谐到域特定的包络频率并且反映类似的属性（例如，位置不变性）。还提出了可能存在接收单声道和双耳输入两者的时间包络通道。由于如此多的耳蜗听力障碍患者难以处理复杂的声音，但在许多“局部”任务上相对没有困难，因此了解这些缺陷的性质以及（假定的）特定领域的包络通道可能受到影响至关重要。这些实验和分析将为听力科学、实验心理学和临床听力学领域提供实质性的贡献。

Description:(From the proposal) Characterization of normal and impaired auditory perception necessarily requires an understanding of how simple and complex auditory signals are perceived and encoded. A void in this area of research is a global or unifying framework with which to understand such processing as it relates to everyday communication in listeners with normal and impaired hearing. This proposal requests support for a comprehensive study focusing on the perception of spectral and temporal patterns characteristic of sounds in the natural environment. One long-term goal is to provide a global explanation of spectral and temporal envelope perception. One specific hypothesis to be tested here is that the perception of envelope changes (spectral or temporal) is consistent with a general set of physical constraints mediated by domain-specific envelope channels in the central auditory system. Two sets of channels are proposed, temporal and spectral, which are tuned to domain-specific envelope frequency and which reflect similar properties (e.g., position invariance) throughout the audio spectrum. It is also proposed that temporal envelope channels might exist that receive both monaural and binaural input. Because so many individuals with cochlear hearing impairment have difficulty processing complex sounds, but relatively little difficulty on many "local" tasks, it is crucial to understand the nature of these deficits and how (putative) domain-specific envelope channels might be affected. The experiments and analyses will provide a substantial contribution to the fields of hearing science, experimental psychology, and clinical audiology.