Binaural Spectral Integration with Hearing Loss and Hearing Devices

双耳频谱整合与听力损失和听力设备

• 批准号: 9178652
• 负责人: Lina A. Reiss
• 金额: $ 38.5万
• 依托单位: OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-01 至 2018-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9178652
• 关键词: 11 year old; 8 year old; Acoustics; Adult; Adverse effects; Affect; Age; American; Auditory; Bilateral; Binaural; Brain; Child; Childhood; Chronic; Classification; Clinical; Cochlear Implants; Confusion; Contralateral; Cues; Data; Development; Devices; Discrimination; Ear; Frequencies; Future; Goals; Hearing; Hearing Aids; Individual; Lead; Measures; Methods; Modality; Modeling; Music; Noise; Normal Range; Pattern; Perception; Performance; Peripheral; Pitch Perception; Population; Process; Psychological reinforcement; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Sensory; Shapes; Speech; Speech Perception; Stimulus; Testing; Time; Training Programs; Uncertainty; Voice; Weight; Work; auditory processing; experience; experimental study; hearing impairment; human subject; improved; information processing; multisensory; programs; public health relevance; speech processing; speech recognition; voice recognition

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 22 million Americans have a hearing impairment. While hearing devices such as hearing aids (HAs) and cochlear implants (CIs) are successful in improving speech recognition for many hearing-impaired (HI) individuals, there is still significant variability in benefit, and speech recognition in noise remains a problem. One factor that may limit benefit is interference between bilaterally worn hearing devices, whether the devices are bilateral HAs, bilateral CIs, or a unilateral CI worn with a HA in the contralatera ear (bimodal CI+HA). In HI individuals, spectral information is not necessarily matched between ears due to asymmetries introduced by hearing loss and hearing device programming. Thus, unlike normal-hearing (NH) listeners, HI listeners integrate mismatched spectral information between ears, in a process that we can call binaural spectral integration (BSI). Our preliminary studies suggest that BSI adapts to reduce perception of interaural spectral mismatch in HI individuals; binaural fusion is increased so that pitches that differ greatly in frequency between the two ears are still heard as a single percept. However, a side effect of increased binaural fusion is that mismatched spectral information is averaged between ears, which may lead to increased speech perception confusions and worsened frequency discrimination. The long-term goal of this research program is to investigate how BSI differs between HI and NH listeners, and the clinical implications of these differences for rehabilitation. Specifically, in this proposal w will examine 1) differences in binaural fusion between HI and NH listeners, as well as across different device combinations within the HI group: bilateral HAs, bilateral CIs, and bimodal CI+HA; 2) how abnormal BSI affects the perception of tone and speech stimuli; and 3) how BSI changes as children develop, because developing brains may adapt BSI differently than adults. The proposed research will increase our understanding of how one aspect of auditory processing, binaural spectral integration, contributes to difficulties with binaural speech perception in HA and CI users. The results will also indicate whether hearing devices should be programmed differently for children than adults. Finally, the results will build the theoretical framework for future planned studies using frequency-specific device programming and training programs to reduce any detrimental BSI, while maintaining or increasing the benefits of binaural processing for speech perception in quiet and noise.

描述（由申请人提供）：大约 2200 万美国人有听力障碍。虽然助听器 (HA) 和人工耳蜗 (CI) 等助听设备成功地改善了许多听力障碍 (HI) 个体的语音识别能力，但效果仍然存在显着差异，并且噪声中的语音识别仍然是一个问题。可能限制益处的一个因素是双侧佩戴的助听设备之间的干扰，无论设备是双侧 HA、双侧 CI，还是在对侧耳朵佩戴 HA 的单侧 CI（双峰 CI+HA）。在 HI 个体中，由于听力损失和听力设备编程引入的不对称性，频谱信息在耳朵之间不一定匹配。因此，与正常听力 (NH) 的听众不同，HI 听众会整合耳朵之间不匹配的频谱信息，这一过程我们可以称为双耳频谱整合 (BSI)。我们的初步研究表明，BSI 可以减少 HI 个体对耳间频谱不匹配的感知；双耳融合得到增强，因此两耳之间频率差异很大的音调仍然可以作为单一感知听到。然而，增加双耳融合的副作用是，耳朵之间的频谱信息不匹配，这可能导致语音感知混乱增加和频率辨别恶化。 该研究项目的长期目标是调查 HI 和 NH 听众之间 BSI 的差异，以及这些差异对康复的临床影响。具体来说，在本提案中，我们将检查 1) HI 和 NH 听众之间的双耳融合差异，以及 HI 组内不同设备组合之间的差异：双侧 HA、双侧 CI 和双模态 CI+HA； 2）异常的BSI如何影响语气和言语刺激的感知； 3）随着儿童的成长，BSI如何变化，因为发育中的大脑可能与成人不同地适应BSI。拟议的研究将加深我们对听觉处理（双耳频谱集成）的一个方面如何导致 HA 和 CI 用户双耳语音感知困难的理解。研究结果还将表明助听器是否应该针对儿童和成人进行不同的编程。最后，研究结果将为未来计划的研究构建理论框架，使用特定频率的设备编程和培训计划来减少任何有害的 BSI，同时保持或增加双耳处理在安静和噪声下的语音感知的优势。