MONAURAL AND BINARUAL SPECTRO/TEMPORAL PROCESSING

描述：（来自提案）表征正常和受损的听觉感知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的或统一的框架，用来理解听力正常和受损听众的日常交流过程。本提案要求支持一项全面的研究，重点是对自然环境中声音特征的频谱和时间模式的感知。一个长期目标是提供光谱和时间包络感知的全局解释。这里要测试的一个特定假设是，对包络变化（频谱或时间）的感知与中央听觉系统中由特定领域包络通道介导的一组一般物理约束相一致。提出了两组信道，时间和频谱，它们被调谐到特定域的包络频率，并在整个音频频谱中反映类似的属性（例如，位置不变性）。也有人提出，可能存在同时接受单耳和双耳输入的时间包络通道。由于许多耳蜗听力障碍患者在处理复杂声音方面存在困难，但在许多“局部”任务上却相对困难，因此了解这些缺陷的性质以及（假定的）特定领域包络通道如何受到影响至关重要。这些实验和分析将对听力科学、实验心理学和临床听力学领域做出重大贡献。

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.