Perception of speech in context by listeners with healthy and impaired hearing

项目摘要/摘要 感知系统在上下文中运行：对给定对象/事件的感知受对象/事件的影响 围绕着它。语音感知以同样的方式工作，其中对语音的感知是非常重要的 受周围背景声音的声学特性的影响。这些声学背景效果 对感知至关重要，因为它们有助于在面对 在语音、声学和听力环境中有相当大的变异性。尽管这一点很重要，但有一个 对声学背景如何塑造言语知觉的理解不足。历史悠久的方式 测量言语知觉通常是在没有任何背景的情况下呈现刺激，或者当它们出现时，它是研究 听力正常(NH)的听众在安静状态下的单一语境效应。这些方法严重阻碍了 理解日常听力环境中的言语感知(在语境中，在背景噪音中)和 为听力有困难的听众准备的。这个项目的长期目标是提高我们对 听觉正常和受损的言语知觉中这些声学语境效应的潜在机制 系统。这一目标是通过三个具体目标实现的。第一个目标是定义统一关系 不同语境效应在非听力障碍和听障人群言语感知中的差异。 第一个目标中的实验利用个体差异的方法来探索听觉语境效应 统一的系统，而不是个别的孤立效应。第二个目的是研究背景的影响 噪声对NH和HI人群的这些背景影响。第二个目标的实验将测试竞争对手 关于噪声是通过掩蔽来降低环境影响还是增强环境影响的预测 通过流传输的上下文。第三个目的是研究语境在言语知觉中的作用 植入物(CI)用户。在第三个目标中，用真实和模拟CI听力进行的实验将阐明机制 潜在的语境效应以及配置项加工的不同方面的影响。这些目标是补充的 通过对神经对语音刺激的反应进行计算建模，以澄清外周与 这些背景效应背后的中心机制。总体而言，这些结果将为我们提供关于如何 NH、HI和CI人群在其他声音的背景和背景噪音中感知声音。这些 努力将产生对听觉知觉的更好理解，并具有现实和突出的约束 上下文影响，并将有助于为翻译应用程序提供神经和行为框架。

Project Summary / Abstract Perceptual systems operate in context: perception of a given object/event is influenced by the objects/events that surround it. Speech perception operates in the same way, where perception of speech sounds is heavily influenced by the acoustic properties of contextual sounds that surround them. These acoustic context effects are critically important to perception because they help maintain perceptual constancy in the face of considerable variability in speech acoustics and listening environments. Despite this importance, there is a poor understanding of how acoustic context shapes speech perception. The well-established ways of measuring speech perception routinely present stimuli without any context, or when they do, it is to study a single context effect in quiet for listeners with normal hearing (NH). These approaches severely impede understanding of speech perception in everyday listening conditions (in context, amidst background noise) and for listeners with hearing difficulties. The long-term goal of this project is to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these acoustic context effects in speech perception in normal and impaired auditory systems. This goal is addressed through three specific aims. The first aim is to define the unifying relationships between different context effects in speech perception by NH and hearing-impaired (HI) populations. Experiments in the first aim utilize an individual differences approach to explore auditory context effects as a unified system rather than individual isolated effects. The second aim is to study the impact of background noise on these context effects for NH and HI populations. Experiments in the second aim will test competing predictions regarding whether noise diminishes the influence of context via masking or enhances the influence of context via streaming. The third aim is to investigate context effects in speech perception by cochlear implant (CI) users. Experiments in the third aim with real- and simulated-CI listening will elucidate mechanisms underlying context effects and the impacts of different aspects of CI processing. These aims are supplemented by computational modeling of neural responses to the speech stimuli in order to clarify peripheral versus central mechanisms underlying these context effects. Overall, the results will provide new insights into how NH, HI, and CI populations perceive sounds in the context of other sounds and in background noise. These efforts will produce better understanding of auditory perception with the realistic and prominent constraint of contextual influence, and will help to provide a neural and behavioral framework for translational applications.