Identification of electrophysiological indices of speech sound perception and cha

描述(由申请人提供)：患有言语发音障碍(SSD)的儿童在产生、使用和整合其目标语言系统的声音方面存在困难。此外，一些患有SSD的儿童难以感知语音并将其归类为不同的声音类别，这表明他们的听觉感官反应也可能受损。虽然传统上认为患有SSD的儿童无法察觉声音之间的细微差异，但对SSD所隐含的潜在感知机制却知之甚少。根据我们自己的工作和现有的证据，我们认为SSD儿童可能由于对语音的不准确感知而难以创造语音表征，这直接影响了他们正确产生语音的能力。由于SSD的发病率相对较高(5-8%)，充分了解这种疾病的潜在性质可以通过向临床治疗提供信息来改善许多儿童及其家人的生活。因此，评估和治疗可以针对所有缺陷领域，包括言语产生和言语感知。我们建议通过使用电生理测量(事件相关电位，ERPs)来评估SSD儿童及其年龄匹配的典型发育(TD)同龄人的听觉感觉反应测量，以解决这一重要问题。这将有助于更好地理解与语音产生发展相关的潜在神经机制。如果SSD儿童有非典型的语音编码和辨别缺陷，他们的事件相关电位反应将与TD儿童的结果不同。此外，将评估患有SSD的儿童在两种不同的言语治疗方法(一种接受言语感知训练，另一种不接受言语感知训练)时听觉感觉反应的变化；这将使我们能够更好地了解与SSD相关的神经机制如何随时间变化。据预测，包括知觉训练在内的语音治疗方案将增强SSD儿童的语音表征，超过传统语音治疗的效果，导致ERP波幅和潜伏期波形的变化。这项研究计划意义重大，因为准确的语音感知会影响语音发音，也会影响阅读和拼写等学术技能。因此，言语感知能力差会影响儿童有效沟通和学习的整体能力。这项研究具有创新性，因为它使用事件相关电位来识别SSD儿童对语音感知的典型和/或非典型神经反应模式。此外，经过一段时间的语音处理后，事件相关电位波形的变化可能预示着语音感知能力的提高和有效的处理技术，从而导致更具体的语音表征。确定患有SSD的儿童是否存在异常的听觉感觉处理将显著影响如何评估、表征和治疗这种疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children with speech sound disorders (SSD) have difficulty producing, using, and integrating the sounds of their target language system. In addition, some children with SSD have difficulty perceiving and categorizing speech sounds into separate sound categories suggesting that their auditory sensory responses may also be impaired. While children with SSD are traditionally thought to be unable to detect subtle differences between sounds, there is little or no understanding of the underlying perceptual mechanisms implicated in SSD. Based on our own work and that that of existing evidence, we suggest that children with SSD may have difficulty creating phonological representations due to their inaccurate perception of speech sounds, which then directly affects their ability to produce speech sounds correctly. Since the incidence of SSD is relatively high (5-8%), a good understanding of the underlying nature of the disorder could improve the lives of many children and their families by informing clinical management of the disorder. Thus, assessment and treatment could target all areas of deficiency, including speech production and speech perception. We propose to address this important issue by using electrophysiological measures (event-related potentials, ERPs) to assess auditory sensory response measures in children with SSD and their age-matched typically developing (TD) peers. This will allow for a better understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms associated with the development of speech sound production. If children with SSD have atypical speech sound encoding and discrimination deficits, their ERP responses will differ from the outcomes of TD children. Moreover, changes in the auditory sensory responses of the children with SSD that occur in conjunction with two different speech treatment approaches (one with and one without speech perception training) will be assessed; this will allow for a better understanding of how the neural mechanisms associated with SSD change over time. It is predicted that the speech treatment program that includes perceptual training will enhance the phonological representations of children with SSD above and beyond what occurs with traditional speech treatment alone, resulting in ERP amplitude and latency waveform changes. This research program is significant because accurate speech perception affects speech sound production, as well as academic skills such as reading and spelling. Thus, having poor speech perception impacts children's overall ability to effectively communicate and learn. This study is innovative due to its use of ERPs to identify the typical and/or atypical neural response patterns underlying the perception of speech sounds in children with SSD. In addition, changes in the ERP waveforms that occur after a period of speech treatment could be indicative of improved speech perception abilities and effective treatment techniques, resulting in more specified phonological representations. Identifying whether abnormal auditory sensory processing is present in children with SSD will significantly impact how the disorder is assessed, characterized, and treated.