Maximizing Speech Recognition Under Adverse Listening Conditions

描述(由申请人提供)：由于对声学提示的上下文相关权重、这些提示在不利听力条件下的干扰以及老化和听力损伤对这些提示施加的处理限制，目前在辅助听力设备的编程和定制方面的进展是有限的。这项建议针对这一差距，通过确定听力正常和听力受损的老年听众在辅助演示期间如何使用听觉线索来理解噪音中的语音。这个项目的主要目标是确定(1)在不利的听力条件下最大限度地提高言语理解的听觉线索，(2)年龄较大的听者如何感知这些线索的权重，以及(3)掩蔽言语的哪些听觉特性最大程度地限制了言语理解。中心目标是检查和识别最具信息量的听觉线索，当老年听者在嘈杂的环境中恢复听力时，只有部分语音信息可用。中心假设是，在安静的情况下，时间包络线索对言语清晰度的贡献最大，并且对年龄较大的听力辅助听者来说是可用的。然而，在噪声和竞争语音中，这些声学线索的贡献更加有限，而其他线索的贡献变得更加重要，例如时间精细结构，其处理可能受到年龄或耳蜗病理学的限制。具体目标1解决在连续的、打断的和喋喋不休的噪音中的语音。不同的听者群体能够研究年龄、耳蜗病理学和放大对听觉知觉权重的贡献。相关分析将探索知觉权重、噪声中的言语表现和认知能力之间的关系。特定目标#2研究目标和竞争语音的时间特性以及它们是如何相互作用的。这些实验探索了目标说话者的时间属性如何促进语音理解以及竞争说话者的属性是如何干扰的。信息掩饰也通过时间倒置竞争进行了探索。该项目的长期目标是为辅助听力技术的增强编程定义声学参数，并确定单独的加权策略，以帮助未来定制这些设备，以利用设备和听者的现有能力。这个项目的重大贡献是在不同的噪音条件下识别对这些听众最有信息的语音线索。这个项目的方法是创新的。它使用新的信号处理策略，通过噪声信号提取来独立地改变语音的复杂时间特性。此外，它还将自动语音识别的“瞥见”理论扩展到人类对部分信息中的语音的理解。这些创新允许在竞争的说话者范式中直接调查听觉时间线索的使用，这对年长的听者来说是最困难的听力条件。 公共健康相关性：拟议的研究与公共健康相关，因为它确定了老年听众如何使用特定的声学特性，并定义了在竞争的言语环境中，这些特性可用于促进言语理解的限度。这一研究步骤对于设计更具成本效益的听力设备至关重要，该设备可以提高老年听者在不利听力条件下的语音理解能力。因此，拟议的研究与NIH的使命相关，即发展基础知识，以减轻人类残疾的负担。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Current progress in the programming and customization of assistive listening devices is limited due to an inadequate understanding of the context-dependent weighting of acoustic cues, the interference of these cues under adverse listening conditions, and the processing limitations imposed on these cues by aging and hearing impairment. This proposal targets this gap by identifying how older normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners use auditory cues during aided presentations for understanding speech in noise. The primary objectives of this project are to identify (1) the auditory cues that maximize speech understanding under adverse listening conditions, (2) how older listeners perceptually weight those cues, and (3) what auditory properties of the masking speech limit speech understanding the most. The central aim is to examine and identify the most informative auditory cues when only partial speech information is available in noisy environments for older listeners when audibility is restored. The central hypothesis is that in quiet, temporal envelope cues contribute most to speech intelligibility and are available for older listeners with aided hearing. However, in noise and competing speech the contribution of these acoustic cues are more limited, with the contribution of other cues becoming more important, such as the temporal fine structure, the processing of which may be limited by age or cochlear pathology. Specific Aim #1 addresses speech in continuous, interrupting, and speech-babble noise. Different listener groups enable the investigation of age, cochlear pathology, and amplification contributions to auditory perceptual weights. Correlational analysis will explore the relationship between perceptual weights, speech in noise performance, and cognitive abilities. Specific Aim #2 investigates temporal properties of the target and competing speech and how they interact. These experiments explore how temporal properties of the target talker facilitate speech understanding and properties of the competing talker interfere. Informational masking is also explored via time-reversed competition. The long-term goal of this project is to define acoustic parameters for enhanced programming of assistive hearing technology and identify individual weighting strategies to assist in future customization of these devices to capitalize on existing capabilities of the device and the listener. The significant contribution of this project is in identifying the speech cues that will be most informative for these listeners in different noisy conditions. The approach of this project is innovative. It uses novel signal processing strategies to independently vary complex temporal properties of speech via noisy signal extraction. Furthermore, it extends the 'glimpsing' theory of automatic speech recognition to the human understanding of speech from partial information. These innovations allow for the direct investigation of auditory temporal cue use during a competing talker paradigm, quite arguably the most difficult listening condition for older listeners. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research is relevant to public health because it identifies how older listeners use specific acoustic properties and defines the limit to which those properties are available to contribute to speech understanding during competing speech contexts. This research step is essential in the design of more cost effective hearing devices that improve speech understanding abilities of older listeners in adverse listening conditions. Thus, the proposed research is relevant to NIH's mission to develop fundamental knowledge that will reduce the burdens of human disability.