Auditory temporal processes, speech perception and aging

描述（由申请人提供）：这个关于言语感知和听觉心理物理学的研究项目研究了一个假设，即老年听众在言语理解方面的许多主要困难与听觉时间加工的潜在问题有关。老年听众特别难以察觉的一种退化的语言形式是口音英语。语音重音和时间随口音的改变可能被视为语音韵律时间方面的一种退化形式，这种类型的时间扭曲是下一个项目期间研究的重点。此外，心理声学结果表明，在重读音调的顺序刺激模式的听觉节奏和节奏特征的感知上存在较大的年龄相关的时间加工困难。听者加工困难可归因于外围和/或中心加工机制，以及各种认知因素，包括对不同母语韵律特征的熟悉程度。本研究考察了周围性听力障碍、刺激类型、时间复杂性和认知需求以及听者的语言背景经验对言语和非言语刺激模式下时间韵律线索加工的相对贡献。该项目包括四个调查目标，每个目标由一系列语言和非语言歧视和识别任务组成。目的1研究年龄相关的时间敏感性差异的来源，以区分和识别重音语音和不同重音模式的相关非语音片段。目的2测量听者年龄和语言背景对不同韵律时间结构和呈现率的语音和非语音序列中时间线索辨别的影响。目的3考察了听觉训练范式对老年人口音英语和非语音序列感知的效果。目的4将研究年龄对在处理非重读、重读语音和非语音刺激序列时跨听觉和视觉模式整合时间信息能力的影响。该项目的参与者将包括不同年龄、听力敏感度以及某些实验的母语背景的研究对象。本申请中描述的研究旨在解决国家老龄化研究所概述的一个目标：开发有效的干预措施，以保持健康和功能，预防或减少与年龄相关的疾病、失调和残疾的负担。本研究计划的方法包括(a)评估老年人在日常活动中遇到的问题，(b)分析与个人能力有关的具体任务需求，以及(c)对老年人日常生活能力的基础研究

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research program in speech perception and auditory psychophysics examines the hypothesis that many of the predominant difficulties in speech understanding of elderly listeners are related to underlying problems in auditory temporal processing. One form of degraded speech that is particularly difficult for elderly listeners to perceive is accented English. Alterations of speech stress and timing with accent may be viewed as a form of degradation in temporal aspects of speech prosody, and this type of temporal distortion is the focus of investigation in the next project period. Moreover, psychoacoustic results demonstrate that large age-related difficulties in temporal processing exist for the perception of auditory tempo and rhythmic characteristics of sequential stimulus patterns featuring a stressed tone. Listener processing difficulty could be attributed to periphera and/or central processing mechanisms, as well as various cognitive factors, including the degree of familiarity with prosodic features of different native languages. The project examines the relative contribution of peripheral hearing impairment, type of stimulus temporal complexity and cognitive demand, and the linguistic background experience of listeners on the processing of temporal prosody cues in speech and non-speech stimulus patterns. The project comprises four aims of investigation, each consisting of a series of speech and non-speech discrimination and recognition tasks. Aim 1 investigates the sources of age-related differences in temporal sensitivity for discrimination and identification of accented speech and correlated non-speech segments that vary in stress patterns. Aim 2 measures the influences of listener age and linguistic background on discrimination of temporal cues within speech and non-speech sequences that vary in prosodic temporal structure and presentation rate. Aim 3 examines the efficacy of auditory training paradigms with stimuli that feature temporal contrasts for improving perception of accented English and non-speech sequences by older people. Aim 4 will examine the effects of age on the ability to integrate temporal information across auditory and visual modalities in processing unaccented and accented speech and non-speech stimulus sequences. Participants in the project will include groups of subjects that differ by age, hearing sensitivity, and for some experiments, native language background. The research described in this application seeks to address one goal outlined by the National Institute on Aging: to develop effective interventions to maintain health and function and prevent or reduce the burden of age-related diseases, disorders, and disabilities. The approach in this research program involves (a) an assessment of the problems encountered in daily activities by the elderly population, (b) an analysis of specific task demands in relation to individual capabilities, and (c) basic research on sensory and perceptual changes with age and on the ameliorating effects of emerging technologies (including rehabilitation). This three-dimensional approach is expected to further progress toward improving communication and health-related quality of life for senior citizens.