Characterizing the effects of hearing loss and hearing aids on the neural code for music

表征听力损失和助听器对音乐神经编码的影响

• 批准号: MR/W019787/1
• 负责人: Nicholas Lesica
• 金额: $ 71.33万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FW019787%2F1
• 关键词: Characterizing; effects; hearing; loss; aids

Music has always been fundamental to the human experience. It has been a part of every known society, serving a variety of roles from social or ritualistic to aesthetic or therapeutic. But with the advent of modern digital technologies, music is now ubiquitous. A recent UK study found that people polled by random text message were listening to music nearly half of the time.For many people, the ability to enjoy music is essential for their wellbeing. Unfortunately, this ability is increasingly at risk because of the growing burden of hearing loss (approximately 500 million people worldwide; 11 million people in the UK). Current hearing aids, which are designed to improve the perception of speech, often distort music. But without a detailed understanding of the auditory processing of music and how it is disrupted by hearing loss, it remains unclear how the benefits of hearing aids for music can be improved.We are proposing to characterize the auditory processing of music through study of the neural code -- the patterns of neural activity that underlie perception. We will study the neural code for music with and without hearing loss and hearing aids in an animal model of human hearing. The use of animals for this research is essential because the perception of complex sounds like music depends on fine details of neural activity patterns that cannot be observed directly in humans. We have recently developed new methods for large-scale recordings that allow us to observe the activity of hundreds of individual neurons simultaneously, which will enable us to provide a comprehensive characterization of the neural code. We will complement our study of the neural code with a large-scale survey of hearing aid users to help us identify the aspects of our results that are most relevant to the real-world experiences of human listeners.Our preliminary results reveal a number of effects of hearing loss on the neural code that appear to be unique to music. Thus, we expect the results of the project not only to yield new fundamental knowledge about neural coding but also to provide a foundation for the development of improved assistive listening devices and software that can significantly improve the perception and enjoyment of music for listeners with hearing loss.

音乐一直是人类体验的基础。它已经成为每个已知社会的一部分，发挥着从社会或仪式到审美或治疗的各种作用。但随着现代数字技术的出现，音乐现在无处不在。英国最近的一项研究发现，通过随机短信调查的人有近一半的时间在听音乐。对于许多人来说，享受音乐的能力对于他们的健康至关重要。不幸的是，由于听力损失负担日益加重（全球约有 5 亿人；英国有 1100 万人），这种能力正日益面临风险。目前的助听器旨在改善语音感知，但常常会扭曲音乐。但是，如果没有详细了解音乐的听觉处理以及听力损失如何干扰音乐的听觉处理，目前还不清楚如何提高助听器对音乐的益处。我们建议通过研究神经元来表征音乐的听觉处理。代码——感知基础的神经活动模式。我们将在人类听力动物模型中研究有或没有听力损失和助听器的音乐的神经编码。使用动物进行这项研究至关重要，因为对音乐等复杂声音的感知取决于神经活动模式的细节，而这些细节无法在人类身上直接观察到。我们最近开发了用于大规模记录的新方法，使我们能够同时观察数百个单个神经元的活动，这将使我们能够提供神经代码的全面表征。我们将通过对助听器用户的大规模调查来补充我们对神经编码的研究，以帮助我们确定结果中与人类听众的现实体验最相关的方面。我们的初步结果揭示了许多影响听力损失对神经编码的影响似乎是音乐所特有的。因此，我们期望该项目的结果不仅能够产生有关神经编码的新基础知识，而且能够为开发改进的辅助听力设备和软件提供基础，从而显着改善听力损失听众的音乐感知和享受。 。