Temporal processing and speech understanding in older cochlear implantees

摘要：人工耳蜗(CI)可以恢复人们对语音的高水平理解 寿命。然而，知识上的差距是存在的，因为我们不知道衰老是如何影响CI的听力的 用户。衰老与大脑多个层面的变化有关，因此很难确定 随着年龄的增长，听觉表现变差是听觉周期变化的结果。 实际上，中枢听神经结构、认知或三种机制的组合。由于CI由- 通过耳蜗，我们提出了一种利用人类来研究衰老和听力的创新方法 CI模特。使用年龄(年轻人与老年人)和组(CI与正常听力，NH)的比较将允许我们 探讨耳蜗性因素和中枢因素对听力的年龄相关贡献。的长期目标 这个项目是为了(1)确定如何最大限度地补救与年龄相关的听觉和认知加工障碍。 (2)更好地理解听觉老化的生物学效应。这笔赠款的目的是 将年龄确定为CI使用者听觉时间处理的一个可观察和重要的因素。我们的中央 假说是，随着年龄的增长，中枢时间处理和语言理解能力会显著下降 CI使用者的能力，这与年龄相关的外周听力损失无关，这种听力损失发生在 听力受试者。提出这项研究的理由是，老年人的数量正在迅速增加 选择接受CI的成年人，但基本上没有关于这一特定人群的研究充分利用 在这一人群中研究听力的可用的研究工具；我们的领域可以说只有最少的直接 电刺激听觉加工与年龄相关变化的证据和理解。使用 有了强大的初步数据，中心假设将通过追求三个具体目标来检验：(1)去掉 终止时间处理能力随年龄增长的程度，使用高度受控和简单 (2)决定与年龄相关的时间加工因素的程度 影响脑梗塞受试者的语音理解；以及(3)确定衰老对皮层温度的影响程度。 脑梗塞受试者语音的短时编码。这种方法是创新的，因为：(1)老年CI中的老龄化主题 用户是一个研究不足的领域；(2)通过CI模型，我们将更好地理解生物因素，而不是 揭示衰老是如何影响听力的。我们的结果将对听力和联合国产生重大的积极影响 使用CI理解演讲，这将提高CI用户的生活质量。

ABSTRACT: A cochlear-implant (CI) restores high levels of speech understanding to individuals across the lifespan. However, a gap in knowledge exists because we do not understand how aging affects hearing in CI users. Aging is associated with changes at multiple levels of the brain, thereby making it difficult to determine if the poorer auditory performance that occurs with advancing age is a result of changes in the auditory periph- ery, central auditory neural structures, cognition, or a combination of the three mechanisms. Since a CI by- passes the cochlea, we propose an innovative approach for investigating aging and hearing by using a human CI model. Using age (younger vs older adults) and group (CI vs normal hearing, NH) comparisons will allow us to determine the age-related contributions of cochlear and central factors to hearing. The long-term goals of this project are to (1) determine how to maximally remediate age-related auditory and cognitive processing def- icits with a CI and (2) better understand the biological effects of auditory aging. The objective of this grant is to establish age as an observable and significant factor for auditory temporal processing in CI users. Our central hypothesis is that advancing age significantly degrades central temporal processing and speech understanding abilities in CI users, which is independent of the age-related peripheral hearing loss that occurs in acoustically- hearing subjects. The rationale for the proposed research is that there is a rapidly increasing number of older adults that elect to receive a CI, but there is essentially no research on this specific population that fully utilizes the available array of research tools to study hearing in this population; our field arguably has minimal direct evidence and understanding of age-related changes to auditory processing of electrical stimulation. With strong preliminary data in hand, the central hypothesis will be tested by pursuing three specific aims: (1) De- termine the extent to which temporal processing abilities decrease with age using highly-controlled and simple (non-speech) stimuli in CI subjects; (2) Determine the extent to which age-related temporal processing factors affect speech understanding in CI subjects; and (3) Determine the extent to which aging affects cortical tem- poral encoding of speech in CI subjects. This approach is innovative because: (1) the topic of aging in older CI users is an under-studied area and (2) by using a CI model, we will better understand the biological factors un- derlying how aging affects hearing. Our outcomes will provide a significant positive impact on hearing and un- derstanding speech with a CI, which will increase CI users' quality of life.