Visual and auditory perceptual factors affecting spatial release from masking

描述(由申请人提供)：在有许多其他相互竞争的声音存在的情况下，很难听到一个人说话，这对许多人来说是一个严重的问题，即使有些人的听力测试结果正常。当声源在空间上分离时，在这些不利条件下理解语音的能力显著提高，这种效应被称为空间释放，从掩蔽中释放。如果一个人看着一个感兴趣的说话者，看到那个人的脸可以提供视觉空间和时间信息，这可以进一步提高理解，使这成为一种常见和重要的听力康复策略。然而，候选人最近的工作暗示，仅仅是将目光引导到声音上的行为就会带来感知上的好处。此外，尽管空间听觉和视觉信息对听觉选择性注意的重要性得到了广泛的接受，但这些过程之间的相互作用在很大程度上还没有被探索，也没有做过多少工作来表征个体听者的空间听觉能力差异如何影响他们在嘈杂环境中的倾听能力。在这个研究项目的指导培训阶段，候选人将在接受视觉神经科学培训的同时进行两个实验，探索眼睛凝视和视觉信息的影响。他将首先在他之前的发现的基础上，通过测量定向眼睛的效果来建立 在多人讲话任务中，注意从掩饰中释放的空间(目标1)。接下来，他将评估空间和时间视觉信息对选择性注意任务的低水平益处，该任务使用的刺激表现出言语的一些基本特征，但本质上是非语言的(目标2)。在进入奖项的独立阶段后，候选人将检查正常听力听者的听觉空间能力的范围，以及双耳缺陷对多人说话环境中听力表现的影响，然后是否可以通过电生理确定缺陷，以及最终空间缺陷是否会改变听者利用视觉线索的方式(目标3)。这项研究具有临床意义，因为它将为在噪音中倾听提供重要的见解：空间听力障碍如何影响个体的理解，以及重要的视听应对策略背后的特定视觉因素。这项工作将促进应聘者的直接职业目标，即成为一名视听研究人员，在感官模式方面拥有必要的丰富经验，并能够使用行为和大脑活动的测量来执行实验。指导阶段的培训将辅以视觉系统生理学和神经科学方面的正式课程，与合作导师的视觉神经科学小组会面以学习当前文献并对候选人自己的工作进行批判性评估，并通过从主要导师那里学习非科学技能，如指导和实验室管理，以及机构范围的研讨会。在该奖项期间进行的研究和提供的培训对于候选人领导一个实验室的长期目标至关重要，该实验室的研究对人们如何理解和导航他们的感官世界产生了重要的新见解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Difficulty listening to one person speak in the presence of many other competing sounds is a significant problem for many people, even some with normal hearing test results. Understanding speech in these adverse conditions improves markedly when sound sources are spatially separated, an effect known as spatial release from masking. If a person looks toward a talker of interest, seeing that person's face provides visual spatial and temporal information that can improve understanding even more, making this a common and important audiologic rehabilitative strategy. However, recent work performed by the candidate hints at a perceptual benefit from the mere act of directing gaze toward that sound. Furthermore, despite wide acceptance of the importance of spatial hearing and visual information to auditory selective attention, the interplay between these processes is largely unexplored and little work has been done to characterize how differences in spatial hearing abilities among individual listeners affects their ability to listen in noisy situations. In the mentored training phase of this research program, the candidate will perform two experiments exploring the impact of eye gaze and visual information while receiving training in visual neuroscience. He will first build on his previous findings by measuring the effects of directed eye gaze on spatial release from masking in a multiple- talker speech task (Aim 1). Next he will assess the low-level benefits of spatial and temporal visual information to selective attention in task that uses stimuli that exhibit some of the basic characteristics of speech but are non-linguistic in nature (Aim 2). After progressing to the independent phase of the award, the candidate will examine the range of auditory spatial abilities in normal hearing listeners and the effects of binaural deficits on listening performance in multiple-talker environments, then whether deficits can be ascertained electrophysio- logically, and ultimately if spatial deficits change the way listeners leverage visual cues (Aim 3). This research is clinically relevant because it will provide important insights into listening in noise: how spatial hearing deficits affect understanding in the individual, and what specific visual factors underlie important audio-visual coping strategies. The work will facilitate the candidate's immediate career goals of becoming an audio-visual researcher with the necessary substantial experience in both sensory modalities and the ability to execute experiments using measures of both behavior and brain activity. Training during the mentored phase will be supplemented by formal coursework in the physiology and neuroscience of the visual system, meetings with the co-mentor's visual neuroscience group to learn the current literature and critically evaluate the candidate's own work, and by learning nonscientific skills such as mentoring and lab management from the primary mentor as well as institution-wide seminars. The research performed and training provided during this award will be critical for the candidate's long-term goal of directing a lab whose research yields important new insights into how people understand and navigate their sensory world.