TEMPORAL PROPERTIES OF AUDITORY MASKING

这项研究的长期目标是加深我们对时变刺激的听觉处理机制的理解，并确定这些机制如何受到感觉神经性听力损失的影响。有三个独立但相关的研究方向，都在某种程度上关注外周压缩在时间加工中的潜在作用。通过研究阿司匹林引起的暂时性听力损失、永久性听力损失和模型模拟的影响来评估压迫的影响。第一线的研究集中在检测作为先前掩蔽者刺激的函数的短暂信号。潜在的机制可以在增强新到达的或间歇的信号方面发挥重要作用，特别是在持续背景下的信号。这一研究的总体目标是检验这样一种假设，即在非频率音调掩蔽下的时间效应潜在的机制与在宽带噪声掩蔽下潜在的机制不同。第二条线的研究集中在同时掩蔽中的相位效应，特别是由此产生的时间波动如何影响掩蔽量。这项研究的总体目标是更好地了解这些阶段效应背后的渠道内和跨渠道机制。这项研究将加强我们对听觉系统如何处理包括语音在内的许多复杂声音中固有的时间波动的理解，并最终可能提供关于为什么感音神经性听力损失的人在时间复杂背景下理解语言方面的特别困难的见解。第三条研究重点是最近描述的高水平响应增长从压缩到线性的变化。从掩蔽功能的增长推断出的这种变化，是高刺激水平下时间加工能力明显下降的原因。这一研究的主要目标是更好地理解反应增长变化背后的过程。

The long-range goals of the proposed research are to further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the auditory processing of time-varying stimuli, and to determine how those mechanisms are affected by sensorineural hearing loss. There are three separate but related lines of research, and all focus to some extent on the potential role of peripheral compression in temporal processing. The influence of compression is evaluated by studying the effects of temporary, aspirin- induced hearing loss, permanent hearing loss, and model simulations. The first line of research focuses on the detection of brief signals as a function of prior masker stimulation. The underlying mechanisms could play an important role in enhancing newly arriving or intermittent signals, especially those in an on-going background. The general goal of this line of research is to test the hypothesis that the mechanisms underlying the temporal effect with off frequency tonal maskers differ from those underlying the effect with broadband noise maskers. The second line of research concentrates on phase effects in simultaneous masking, particularly on how the resulting temporal fluctuations influence the amount of masking. The general goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of the within- and across-channel mechanisms underlying these phase effects. This research should enhance our understanding of how the auditory system processes the temporal fluctuations inherent in many complex sounds, including speech, and could ultimately provide insight into why individuals with a sensorineural hearing loss have particular difficulties understanding speech in temporally complex backgrounds. The third line of research focuses on a recently described change in response growth from compressive to linear at high levels. This change, inferred from growth-of-masking functions, is responsible for a measured decline in temporal processing at high stimulus levels. The primary goal of this line of research is to gain a better understanding of the processing underlying this change in response growth.