Electrophysiology and Perception of Speech in Noise

描述（由申请人提供）：在背景噪音中聆听是最困难的听力情况之一，是助听器使用者的主要抱怨，也是老年人的常见抱怨。尽管在这些人群中普遍存在噪声感知数据，但仍不清楚人类皮层对噪声信号的编码如何影响这些人群的感知能力。在噪声中感知表现的可变性中，有很大一部分可以用个体间的神经编码差异来解释。因此，本研究的目的是更好地表征噪声中语音信号的神经编码，并将这种编码与行为联系起来。皮质听觉诱发电位结合行为噪声信号测试将被用来回答三个问题。(1)信噪比（SNR）对噪声中信号的皮质编码有何影响？(2)背景噪声类型对噪声信号的皮层编码有何影响？(3)皮层对噪声信号的表征与对噪声信号的感知有何关联？为了回答这些问题，信噪比和背景噪声类型将在四组（听力正常的年轻人、听力受损的年轻人、听力正常的老年人和听力受损的老年人）中有所不同。希望生理和行为信息的结合将提高我们对噪声中感知变异性的理解，并导致改进对噪声中信号缺陷的诊断和治疗。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Listening in background noise is one of the most difficult listening situations, ranking as the primary complaint among hearing aid users and a common complaint among the elderly. Despite the prevalence of perception-in-noise data in these populations, it remains unclear how human cortical encoding of signals in noise contributes to perceptual abilities in these populations. A significant portion of the variability in perception-in-noise performance may be explained by neural encoding differences across individuals. Therefore, the purpose of the research proposed is to better characterize the neural encoding of speech signals in noise and relate that encoding to behavior. Cortical auditory evoked potentials together with behavioral signal-in-noise testing will be used to answer three questions. (1) What is the effect of signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) on cortical encoding of signals in noise? (2) What are the effects of background noise type on cortical encoding of signals in noise? (3) How does the cortical representation of signals in noise correlate with perception of signals in noise? To answer these questions, signal-to-noise ratio and background noise type will be varied across four groups (young normal hearing, young hearing impaired, old normal hearing, and old hearing impaired). It is hoped that the combination of physiological and behavioral information will improve our understanding of perception-in-noise variability and lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of signal-in-noise deficits. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Listening in background noise is a major challenge for many individuals, including older individual and hearing-impaired individuals; furthermore, performance variability across individuals is an important challenge. A measure of cortical neural encoding would provide additional valuable information about the auditory system and may be used to better understand and treat perception-in-noise difficulties across individuals.