Auditory Temporal Processing in the Aging Ear and Brain

衰老耳朵和大脑的听觉时间处理

• 批准号: 8132959
• 负责人: KELLY C HARRIS
• 金额: $ 12.84万
• 依托单位: MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-20 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8132959
• 关键词: Affect; Aging; Anterior; Area; Attention; Auditory; Auditory Brainstem Responses; Auditory area; Auditory system; Behavior assessment; Behavioral; Brain; Characteristics; Clinical; Cognitive; Communication; Detection; Development; EP300 gene; Ear; Elderly; Electrophysiology (science); Evoked Potentials; Functional Imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional disorder; Goals; Hearing; Image; Individual Differences; Instruction; Intervention; Investigation; Knowledge; Lateral; Measures; Mentors; Mentorship; Performance; Peripheral; Prefrontal Cortex; Process; Psychophysiology; Research; Research Personnel; Research Project Grants; Resolution; Resources; Sensory; Speech; Stimulus; Structure; Superior temporal gyrus; System; Techniques; Testing; Training; Work; age related; aging brain; base; behavior measurement; behavior prediction; behavior test; career; career development; cingulate cortex; cognitive change; cognitive function; design; evidence base; experience; hearing impairment; improved; interest; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; neurophysiology; programs; relating to nervous system; research study; response; skills; stimulus processing; theories; young adult

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dr. Harris' career goals are to develop creative approaches to the study of age-related changes in the neural mechanisms underlying auditory processing. Her proposed training plan will allow her to continue her training in electrophysiology and provide additional mentorship in psychophysical and functional neuroimaging techniques. Her planned career development experiences include: a) course work, seminars, and one-on-one instruction with her mentors; and b) implementation of the mentored research plan. The new and enhanced skills Dr. Harris will acquire as a result of these activities should enable her to achieve her long-term career goal as a productive independent investigator. The proposed research project focuses on the interrelationships between age-related changes in auditory and cognitive function and their contributions to changes in communication abilities of older adults. Most previous studies of temporal processing have focused on behavioral measures, which may be affected by age-related declines in both auditory and cognitive functions. A strength of the current studies is the integration of behavioral, electrophysiological, and functional neuroimaging measures within the same subjects to disentangle the effects of central auditory and cognitive changes in the aging brain. Three specific aims are proposed to test the hypothesis that declines in auditory temporal processing in older adults can be attributed to age-related deficits in the central auditory systems, and changes in cognitive functions, such as attention. The proposed experiments adapt a gap detection paradigm typically used in behavioral experiments to electrophysiologic and functional neuroimaging studies. From a clinical standpoint, understanding temporal resolution in the auditory system and its underlying neural processes may help explain the large variance in speech understanding in older adults. Furthermore, knowledge of the auditory and cognitive factors contributing to declines in auditory temporal processing is critical for the development of evidence-based and theory-based intervention strategies designed to improve communication by older adults.

描述（由申请人提供）：哈里斯博士的职业目标是开发创造性的方法来研究听觉处理神经机制中与年龄相关的变化。她提出的培训计划将使她能够继续接受电生理学培训，并提供心理物理学和功能神经影像技术方面的额外指导。她计划的职业发展经历包括： a) 课程作业、研讨会以及与导师的一对一指导； b) 指导研究计划的实施。哈里斯博士将通过这些活动获得新的和增强的技能，这将使她能够实现作为一名富有成效的独立调查员的长期职业目标。拟议的研究项目侧重于与年龄相关的听觉和认知功能变化之间的相互关系及其对老年人沟通能力变化的贡献。之前大多数关于时间处理的研究都集中在行为测量上，这些测量可能会受到与年龄相关的听觉和认知功能下降的影响。当前研究的优势在于将同一受试者的行为、电生理和功能神经影像测量相结合，以阐明衰老大脑中中枢听觉和认知变化的影响。提出了三个具体目标来检验以下假设：老年人听觉时间处理的下降可归因于中枢听觉系统中与年龄相关的缺陷以及注意力等认知功能的变化。所提出的实验将行为实验中通常使用的间隙检测范式适应于电生理学和功能神经影像学研究。从临床角度来看，了解听觉系统的时间分辨率及其潜在的神经过程可能有助于解释老年人言语理解的巨大差异。此外，了解导致听觉时间处理下降的听觉和认知因素对于制定旨在改善老年人沟通的基于证据和基于理论的干预策略至关重要。