AGE RELATED CHANGES IN THE PERCEPTION OF SPEECH

这一为期三年项目目标是继续、延伸和扩大 我们从最初的NIA提案开始的研究路线。我们的 总的目标一直是研究年龄相关的可能的变化 不同年龄被试在不同条件下的言语感知能力 语言层次。这包括分段中的听觉/语音处理 动态声学的识别与识别、处理 语音片段知觉中的线索和自上而下的过程 单词识别。解决的基本问题包括： *听觉/语音记忆的使用是否有年龄相关的变化 (或其加工对应物)在识别和歧视中 说话的声音吗？我们将重点关注与年龄相关的差异 发声时间辨别的处理；知觉 音节--声母摩擦音节的识别 互音节和音节--词尾位置。 *听者的语音处理方式是否有年龄相关的变化 快速变化的声学信息(例如共振峰频率) 辨认元音或辅音的命令？我们将把重点放在 声能的快速和缓慢启动的处理 摩擦/塞音区分；对滑动和停顿的感知；以及 利用听众的能力来利用身份中的动态信息- 元音的音化。 *年龄较大的人是否更多(或更少)使用自上而下 信息在单词识别和分词识别中的作用 更年轻的听众？使用选通程序，我们将检查 较老的听众可以在多大程度上更好地利用自上而下 识别语义可预测、中性或非语义的单词的信息 抑制短语上下文和在语音约束上下文中。 *显著的年龄差异是否与较高水平相关 语言/认知过程可在电生理测量中看到 活动?我们将检查与年龄相关的皮质活动的差异。 (通过测量P3潜伏期)在处理表现出 语言/语音差异的代表性范围。 我们的实验结果将从以下两个方面进行评估 相关老龄化文献及相关理论模型 语音产生和单词识别。这些数据应该允许更多的 准确了解衰老过程，一般情况下，以及 老年人可能面临的语音处理困难，在 很特别。

The aim of this three-year project is continue, extend and augment the line of research we began with our original NIA proposal. Our general goal has been to examine possible age-related changes in the speech perception abilities of older subjects at several different linguistic levels. These include auditory/phonetic processing in segment identification and discrimination, the processing of dynamic acoustic cues in the perception of phonetic segments, and top-down processes in word recognition. Basic questions addressed include: * Are there age-related changes in the use of auditory/phonetic memory (or its processing counterparts) in the identification and discrimination of speech sounds? We will be focusing on the age-related differences in the processing of voice onset time distinctions; perception of syllable-initial fricatives; and the identification of stops in intervocalic and syllable-final position. *Are there age-related changes in how listeners phonetically process rapidly changing acoustic information (such as formant frequencies) in order to make vowel or consonant identifications? We will be focusing on the processing of rapid vs. slow onset of acoustic energy in the fricative/affricate distinction; the perception of glides vs. stops; and use ability of listeners to utilize dynamic information in the identi- fication of vowels. *Do older individuals make greater (or lesser) use of top-down information in word recognition and segment identification than do younger listeners? Using the gating procedure, we will be examining the extent to which older listeners may make greater utilization of top-down information in recognizing words in semantically predictable, neutral or inhibiting phrasal contexts and in phonotactically constraining contexts. *Can significant age differences associated with higher level linguistic/cognitive processes be seen in measures of electrophysiologic activity? We will examine age-related differences in cortical activity (by measuring P3 latencies) during the processing of sounds exhibiting a representative range of linguistic/phonetic distinctions. The results of our experiments will be evaluated in terms of both the relevant aging literature and the relevant theoretical models of speech production and word recognition. These data should allow a more accurate understanding of the aging process, in general, and the types of speech processing difficulties the older individual may face, in particular.