High-Frequency Hearing Loss and Early Aging Effects on Auditory Temporal Coding

高频听力损失和早期衰老对听觉时间编码的影响

• 批准号: 8266939
• 负责人: Elizabeth D. Leigh
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: JAMES H QUILLEN VA MEDICAL CENTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8266939
• 关键词: Accounting; Acoustics; Address; Adult; Affect; Age; Aging; Audiology; Audiometry; Auditory; Auditory Evoked Potentials; Auditory system; Basic Science; Behavioral; Clinic; Clinical; Code; Complex; Computer software; Detection; Development; Devices; Diagnostic; Discrimination; Electrophysiology (science); Equipment; Experimental Designs; FarGo; Florida; Frequencies; General Population; Goals; Hearing; Hearing Aids; High-Frequency Hearing Loss; Home environment; Impairment; Individual; Instruction; Knowledge; Laboratories; Literature; Masks; Measurement; Measures; Mentors; Methods; Noise; Participant; Patients; Perception; Performance; Physiological; Play; Process; Psychophysics; Recovery; Recruitment Activity; Rehabilitation therapy; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Sensorineural Hearing Loss; Series; Short-Term Memory; Signal Transduction; Speech; Speech Perception; Stimulus; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Time; Training; Translating; United States; Universities; Veterans; Wisconsin; age effect; age related; aged; base; body system; experience; hearing impairment; improved; insight; male; men; middle age; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; signal processing; skills; speech processing; young adult

DESCRIPTION: Temporal coding is the ability of the auditory system to detect and transmit fluctuations in time across the acoustic signal. Sensorineural hearing loss and early aging have the potential to reduce the temporal resolving power of the auditory system. The relevant literature, however, shows mixed results from psychophysical studies, speech perception studies, and physiologic studies. The lack of a clear understanding of how hearing loss changes temporal processing (or not) may be the result of several factors including early age-related changes in neural recovery or adaptation and methodological issues (e.g., equivalent presentation levels, stimulus complexity). A series of experiments to measure temporal processing in middle-aged adults with and without high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (abbreviated as HFL throughout proposal) is proposed. This understudied group has been largely overlooked in the study of auditory aging because most older subjects have some degree of high-frequency hearing loss and research is often conducted in low-frequency regions where pure-tone thresholds are similar to those of younger subjects. Presenescent changes have been found for speech perception (Helfer and Fargo, 2009) and for auditory temporal coding (Grose et al., 2006). Significantly poorer gap detection occurs for stimuli presented in regions of normal pure-tone sensitivity when high-frequency hearing loss is present. The proposed research will improve our understanding of early aging and HFL on auditory temporal coding. The purpose of the primary study is to determine the extent to which early aging and HFL impact temporal coding in regions of normal low-frequency hearing. The current study addresses these purposes with the following three specific questions: (1) Is there a significant difference in low-frequency temporal coding between listeners with normal pure-tone sensitivity and listeners with HFL? (2) Is there a significant difference in temporal coding between young subjects (aged 18 - 30 years) and middle-aged subjects (aged 40 - 60 years) who have normal pure-tone sensitivity? and (3) Are psychophysical or electrophysiologic measures of temporal coding related? Four groups of subjects will be targeted for a series of experiments as follows: (1) young adults with normal pure-tone sensitivity (YNH), (2) middle-aged adults with normal pure-tone sensitivity (MANH), (3) young adults with HFL (YHFL), and (4) middle-aged adults with HFL (MAHFL). Normal hearing will be defined as pure-tone thresholds d25 dB HL for the frequencies from 250- to 8000 Hz. High-frequency hearing will be defined as pure-tone thresholds d25 dB HL from 250 - 2000 Hz and e 35 dB HL from 3000 - 8000 Hz. Participants will be recruited from the Audiology Clinic at the VA at Mountain Home. One short-term objective is to acquire a high-level of technical understanding of signal processing and experimental design as well as insight into parallel experimental designs in multiple domains (e.g., clinical audiology, psychophysics, and electrophysiology). The new skills will provide a bridge between my basic research skills acquired to date and advanced skills necessary to transition into an independent VA investigator. A second short-term goal is to acquire the experience needed to analyze cortical auditory evoked potentials, which inherently are complex. Thus, the focus will be practical and theoretical integration by leveraging the expertise of the CDA-2 mentors (Drs. Murnane, Eddins, and Fowler). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE High-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (HFL) affects up to 93% of males in the United States aged 60-69 years and 57% of men aged 40-49 years. Veterans with hearing loss typically have more noise exposure and are older than the general population; these circumstances both contribute to HFL. Between 2008 and 2009 compensable claims for impaired hearing grew 12.4%, which was more than any other body system impairment and middle-aged adults (35-54 years) accounted for 30% of those Veterans (Annual Benefits Report FY2009, p. 9-10). Currently, it is not understood in what way early aging and HFL contribute to reduced temporal processing and speech understanding. The knowledge gained by this research will provide direct benefit to Veterans suffering from HFL by better rehabilitative strategies (e.g., auditory training) or devices (e.g., processors for hearing aids).

描述： 时间编码是听觉系统在声音信号中检测和传输波动的能力。感官听力损失和早期老化有可能降低听觉系统的时间分辨能力。然而，相关文献显示了心理物理研究，语音感知研究和生理研究的结果。缺乏对听力损失如何变化时间处理（或没有）的明确了解可能是几个因素的结果，包括与幼年相关的神经恢复或适应性和方法论问题（例如，等效呈现水平，刺激复杂性）。提出了一系列测量有或没有高频感官听力损失的中年成年人的时间处理的实验（在整个建议中缩写为HFL）。在听觉衰老的研究中，这个经过研究的群体在很大程度上被忽略了，因为大多数老年受试者具有一定程度的高频听力损失，并且在低频区域经常进行研究，在这些区域中，纯音阈值与年轻受试者相似。已经发现了语音感知的早期变化（Helfer和Fargo，2009年）和听觉时间编码（Grose等，2006）。当存在高频听力损失时，在正常纯音灵敏度的区域中提出的刺激发生了明显的差距检测。拟议的研究将提高我们对早期衰老和HFL对听觉时间编码的理解。主要研究的目的是确定正常低频听力区域的早期衰老和HFL影响时间编码的程度。当前的研究通过以下三个特定问题解决了这些目的：（1）在正常的纯音灵敏度和HFL的听众之间，低频时间编码有显着差异？ （2）年轻受试者（18-30岁）和中年受试者（40至60岁）之间的时间编码有显着差异？ （3）与时间编码有关的心理物理或电生理学测量是否相关？四组受试者将针对一系列实验，如下所示：（1）具有正常纯正灵敏度（YNH）的年轻人，（2）具有正常纯正敏感性（MANH）的中年成年人，（3）患有HFL（YHFL）和（4）HFL（MAHFL）的年轻人。正常的听力将定义为250至8000 Hz的频率的纯色阈值D25 dB HL。高频听力将定义为250-2000 Hz的纯音阈值D25 dB HL，E 35 dB HL来自3000-8000 Hz。参与者将从山上的弗吉尼亚州的听力学诊所招募。一个短期目标是获得对信号处理和实验设计的高水平技术理解，以及对多个领域（例如临床听力学，心理物理学和电生理学）中平行实验设计的见解。新技能将在我迄今为止获得的基础研究技能与过渡到独立VA调查员所需的高级技能之间提供桥梁。第二个短期目标是获得分析皮质听觉诱发潜力所需的经验，这本质上是复杂的。因此，通过利用CDA-2导师的专业知识（Murnane，Eddins和Fowler）的专业知识，重点将是实用和理论整合。 公共卫生相关性 高频感官听力损失（HFL）在60-69岁的美国最多影响93％的男性，占40-49岁的男性的57％。听力损失的退伍军人通常会有更多的噪音暴露，并且比一般人群更老。这些情况都有助于HFL。在2008年至2009年之间，关于听力受损的可补偿要求增长了12.4％，这比任何其他身体系统障碍和中年成年人（35 - 54岁）占这些退伍军人的30％（年度福利报告2009财年，第9-10页）。目前，尚不清楚早期衰老和HFL有助于减少时间处理和语音理解的方式。这项研究获得的知识将为患有HFL的退伍军人提供更好的康复策略（例如听觉培训）或设备（例如助听器的处理器）。