Spatial Auditory Plasticity

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的目标是表征和理解空间听觉感知如何被过去的经验改变。实验将验证空间听觉加工是分层次的，经验通过不同的机制影响空间知觉在不同的加工阶段的假设。具体来说，实验将测试1）外显训练是否快速改变空间感知如何映射到离心空间中的感知位置;而2）室内声学的内隐学习是否改变空间线索如何整合以形成空间感知，从而导致在室内体验的定位可靠性的改善; 3）通路的早期阶段不改变，但包括动态的、非线性的影响，这些影响改变了哪些信息可用于随后的处理阶段。这些假设将通过测量空间定位精度和变异性的行为实验，表征空间声学线索如何受到不同声学环境影响的声学测量，以及探索实验结果的处理结构的计算模型来解决。这项工作对于确定正常人类听众如何适应和校准日常环境中的空间感知至关重要，以便在不断变化的声学环境中保持准确的空间感知。结果将有助于阐明过去的经验如何影响空间听觉处理，改变空间听觉感知，并影响空间分辨率和定位精度。通过研究感知现象，反映在不同阶段的处理和影响行为的时间尺度范围内的变化，该项目将提供一个连贯的图片如何正常的听觉系统保持空间听觉感知与其他方式的感知注册表。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to characterize and understand how spatial auditory perception is altered by past experience. Experiments will test the hypothesis that spatial auditory processing is hierarchical and that experience influences spatial perception through different mechanisms at different processing stages. Specifically, experiments will test whether 1) explicit training rapidly alters how spatial percepts are mapped to perceived locations in exocentric space; whereas 2) implicit learning of room acoustics alters how spatial cues are integrated to form spatial percepts, leading to improvements in localization reliability with experience in a room; and 3) early stages of the pathway do not change, but include dynamic, nonlinear effects that alter what information is available to later processing stages. These hypotheses will be addressed through behavioral experiments that measure spatial localization accuracy and variability, acoustic measurements that characterize how spatial acoustic cues are affected by different acoustical environments, and computational models that explore what processing structures account for experimental results. This work is critical for identifying how the normal human listener adapts and calibrates spatial perception in everyday settings in order to maintain accurate spatial perception in changing acoustic environments. Results will help to elucidate how past experience influences spatial auditory processing, changes spatial auditory perception, and affects spatial resolution and localization accuracy. By studying perceptual phenomena that reflect changes at different stages of processing and affect behavior over a range of time scales, this project will provide a coherent picture of how the normal auditory system keeps spatial auditory percepts in registry with percepts from other modalities.