Brainstem enhancement of stimulus regularities with auditory expertise

描述（由申请人提供）：在嘈杂的房间里听讲话对每个人来说都是困难的，但儿童特别容易受到背景噪音的有害影响。据认为，从竞争噪声中提取语音的能力取决于神经系统如何识别目标声音中的统计模式（例如，说话者的声音），并跟踪它们，同时抑制神经对背景噪音的反应。具体而言，听觉脑干对正在进行的语音流中的模式表现出增强反应的程度与噪声中的语音感知有关。我们不知道儿童时期的听觉训练，如音乐训练，如何使大脑系统在噪音中听到语音，尽管成年人有证据表明这一点。对于音乐训练，以提高神经系统的能力，从语音中受益并不奇怪，因为声音pacemaker是音乐的基石，有助于感知音调，节奏和节拍，以及音乐主题的结构使用。该项目旨在评估儿童时期音乐训练对皮质下大脑系统的发展影响，这些系统是3岁儿童在背景噪音中听到语音的能力的基础。具体而言，听觉脑干反应的可预测和可变的语音模式和措施的听力语音噪声能力将获得在儿童年仅3岁，有和没有音乐训练。我们假设，与没有参加音乐训练的儿童相比，具有音乐专业知识的儿童表现出可预测言语的神经增强，这种增强随着发展和多年的音乐实践而增加。这种神经增强在音乐家儿童中观察到，在噪音中听到语音的行为表现更好。结果将提高我们对听觉专业知识如何塑造感觉处理的认识（例如，在具有挑战性的听音环境中）及其对大脑如何利用信号的影响。研究结果也可能有助于提高噪音排除缺陷儿童的教育和补救方案的有效性，包括患有临床疾病的儿童，如发育性阅读障碍，特定语言障碍和听觉处理障碍。 公共卫生相关性：这个项目的结果可以解释听觉专业知识如何塑造大脑在嘈杂环境中处理语音的方式，比如一个老师在熙熙攘攘的教室里说话。研究结果可能有助于改善儿童在背景噪音中听语音有问题的补救方案的疗效，包括儿童谁有语言为基础的学习障碍，除了奠定基础，采用音乐作为听觉补救的策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hearing speech in noisy rooms is difficult for everyone, but children are particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of background noise. It is thought that the ability to pull out speech from competing noise depends on how the nervous system recognizes statistical patterns in the target sound (e.g., a speaker's voice) and tracks them while supresing neural responses to the background noise. Specifically, the degree to which the auditory brainstem demonstrates enhanced responses to patterns in the ongoing speech stream relates to the perception of speech in noise. We do not know how auditory training during childhood, such as musical training, may benefit brain systems for hearing speech in noise, despite evidence to this effect in adults. For musical training to enhance the nervous system's ability to profit from regularities in speech would not be surprising given that sound paterns are the building blocks of music, contributing to the perception of tonality, rhythm and meter, and the structural use of musical themes. This project aims to evaluate the developmental impact of musical training during childhood on subcortical brain systems that underlie the ability to hear speech in background noise in children as young as 3 years of age. Specifically, auditory brainstem responses to predictable and variable speech patterns and measures of hearing speech in noise ability will be obtained in children as young as 3 years of age with and without musical training. We hypothesize that children with musical expertise demonstrate increased neural enhancement of predictable speech, compared with children who have not participated in musical training, with this enhancement increasing with both development and years of musical practice. This neural enhancement is observed in musician children in the context of better behavioral performance for hearing speech in noise. Results will improve our knowledge of how auditory expertise shapes sensory processing (e.g., in challenging listening environments) and its impact on how the brain utilizes signal regularities. Results may also contribute to the improved efficacy of educational and remedial programs for children with noise-exclusion deficits, including children with clinical disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment and auditory processing disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Results from this project may explain how auditory expertise shapes how the brain deals with speech in noisy environments, such as a teacher speaking in a bustling classroom. Findings may contribute to the improved efficacy of remedial programs for children who have problems hearing speech in background noise, including children who have language-based learning impairment, in addition to laying the groundwork for employing music as a strategy for auditory remediation.