AUDITORY TEMPORAL PROCESSES, SPEECH PERCEPTION AND AGING

描述：该项目提出了一个在言语感知的研究计划 和听觉心理物理学来检验这个假设， 老年人在言语理解方面的主要困难是 与听觉时间处理的潜在问题有关。 研究 表明老年听众在识别语音方面有特殊的问题 其通过改变说话速率和/或混响而降级， 快速言语引发最强的年龄相关处理缺陷。 的 听众在理解暂时改变的语音方面的困难可能是 归因于外周感觉机制的缺陷，中枢介导 定时机制和认知功能的年龄相关变化。 的 项目调查周边听力的相对贡献 损伤、刺激时间复杂度和认知改变 对使用速率改变的语音和非语音的听觉处理的要求 刺激序列 该项目包括四个调查阶段， 每一个都包括一系列的语音识别实验， 心理声学时间辨别和识别任务。 阶段1 （mos. 1-18）调查了主要的时间因素， 与速率改变的言语句子相关的处理缺陷， 非语音序列模式。 第二阶段（Mos. （13-36）影响 不同的刺激时间复杂度和识别率的变化 以及语音和非语音顺序序列的区分。 阶段3 （mos. 30-48）评估时间改变对增强 语音和非语音刺激序列的语音识别和回忆。 第四阶段（Mos.） 49-60）检查了时间变更增强的好处 语音和非语音序列的识别技术 节奏的复杂性 在调查的每个阶段，独立的 认知需求、主体年龄和听力损失对听者的影响 将审查业绩。 该项目的主题将包括年轻的 和听力正常的老年人， 听力损失 所有科目也将在 教育背景、身心健康和耳科病史。

DESCRIPTION: The project proposes a program of studies in speech perception and auditory psychophysics to examine the hypothesis that many of the predominant difficulties in speech understanding for elderly listeners are related to underlying problems in auditory temporal processing. Research indicates that elderly listeners have particular problems recognizing speech that is degraded by alteration of speaking rate and/or reverberation, with rapid speech eliciting the strongest age-related processing deficits. The listeners' difficulty in understanding temporally-altered speech may be attributed to deficits in peripheral sensory mechanisms, centrally mediated timing mechanisms, and age-related changes in cognitive function. The project investigates the relative contributions of peripheral hearing impairment, degree of stimulus temporal complexity, and altered cognitive demands on auditory processing using rate-altered speech and non-speech stimulus sequences. The project comprises four stages of investigation, each consisting of a series of speech recognition experiments and psychoacoustic temporal discrimination and identification tasks. Stage 1 (mos. 1-18) investigates the principal temporal factors contributing to processing deficits associated with rate-altered speech sentences and non-speech sequential patterns. Stage 2 (mos. 13-36) examines the effects of varying stimulus temporal complexity and rate alteration on recognition and discrimination of speech and non-speech sequential sequences. Stage 3 (mos. 30-48) evaluates the effects of time alteration on enhancement of speech recognition and recall of speech and non-speech stimulus sequences. Stage 4 (mos. 49-60) examines the benefits of time-alteration enhancement techniques for recognition of speech and non-speech sequences of varying rhythmic complexity. For each stage of the investigation, the independent effects of cognitive demands, subject age, and hearing loss on listener performance will be examined. Subjects in the project will include young and elderly listeners with normal hearing and matched degrees of sensorineural hearing loss. All subjects will be examined as well on educational background, physical and mental health and otologic history.