Phonological neighborhoods in aging and aphasia

衰老和失语症的语音邻域

基本信息

批准号：
7410095
负责人：
JEAN Kathleen GORDON
金额：
$ 7.16万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2006
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2006-05-01 至 2010-04-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study investigates word retrieval processes involved in speech production and recognition. In particular, the role of the 'phonological neighborhood' is assessed in non-brain-damaged (NBD) subjects and in subjects with aphasia. As words are being retrieved for production, related words also become available, and are sometimes produced instead of the intended word, resulting in phonologically related (similar- sounding) speech errors. In language comprehension, words which sound similar to the target may interfere with the recognition of the word produced. These observations prompted researchers to assess whether the number of words similar to a target (its 'neighborhood density') influences the speed and accuracy of its retrieval. Studies with normal speakers show that the more neighbors a word has, the harder it is to recognize, but the easier it is to produce. Research with older subjects has suggested that increased word recognition problems in aging may be due to difficulties inhibiting incorrect words from the set of activated alternatives, while increased word production problems may be due to reduced transmission of activity throughout the lexicon. Similar problems have been hypothesized for aphasic populations. Examining the influence of a word's neighborhood density is 1 way to illustrate such effects; however, no effort has been made to reconcile the disparate findings in recognition and production within the same theoretical framework. The current study addresses this gap, by extending the study of phonological neighborhood effects, in both recognition and production, to older NBD and aphasic speakers. 2 main studies are proposed: Study 1 tests for competitive neighborhood effects in the word recognition of NBD (young and old) and aphasic subjects, using word recognition tasks. Study 2 tests for facilitative neighborhood effects in speech production, using naming tasks with the same groups. The proposed study aims to clarify the processes of word recognition and word production in non-brain- damaged speakers, and examine the ways in which these processes can break down with brain damage. Knowledge of the effects of aging is essential to an understanding of language impairments that occur in aging populations, such as aphasia and dementia. It is only through such an understanding that effective methods can be developed to treat word retrieval deficits that arise from brain damage.

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究调查了语音生成和识别中涉及的单词检索过程。特别是，在非脑损伤（NBD）受试者和失语症受试者中评估“语音邻居”的作用。当检索单词进行生成时，相关单词也变得可用，并且有时会生成而不是预期的单词，从而导致语音相关（发音相似）的语音错误。在语言理解中，与目标发音相似的单词可能会干扰对所产生单词的识别。这些观察结果促使研究人员评估与目标相似的单词数量（其“邻域密度”）是否会影响其检索的速度和准确性。对正常说话者的研究表明，一个单词的邻居越多，它就越难识别，但就越容易产生。对老年受试者的研究表明，衰老过程中单词识别问题的增加可能是由于难以抑制一组激活的替代词中的不正确单词，而单词生成问题的增加可能是由于整个词典中的活动传输减少所致。失语症人群也存在类似的问题。检查单词邻域密度的影响是说明这种影响的一种方法；然而，尚未做出努力在同一理论框架内协调承认和生产方面的不同发现。目前的研究通过将识别和生成方面的语音邻域效应研究扩展到老年 NBD 和失语症说话者，解决了这一差距。提出了 2 项主要研究：研究 1 使用单词识别任务测试 NBD（年轻和年长）和失语症受试者的单词识别中的竞争性邻域效应。研究 2 使用相同组的命名任务来测试语音产生中的促进邻里效应。这项研究旨在阐明非脑损伤说话者的单词识别和单词生成过程，并研究这些过程因脑损伤而崩溃的方式。了解衰老的影响对于理解老年人群中出现的语言障碍（例如失语症和痴呆症）至关重要。只有通过这样的理解，才能开发出有效的方法来治疗由脑损伤引起的单词检索缺陷。