People with sensorineural hearing loss experience difficulties understanding speech in noisy environments and often complain that music sounds distorted or unpleasant. Both of these deficits may be attributed to the functional effects of damage to cochlear structures, which include a loss of auditory sensitivity, alterations in loudness perception, and impairments of spectral and temporal processing in the auditory system. In this program of research, behavioral psychoacoustic methodologies are used to study the deficits associated with frequency and time analysis in the impaired cochlea, and the impact of those deficits on the clear understanding of speech and the ability to enjoy music. For the next grant period, the focus of this research will be the study of fine temporal processing of complex sounds in the damaged cochlea. Included are studies of complex pitch produced by harmonic and inharmonic complexes and aperiodic rippled noises, studies of the judged consonance and dissonance of pairs of tones and pairs of harmonic complexes, and studies of the ability to perceive the fine structure in temporal waveforms. The studies have as their goal the evaluation of the representation of temporal interval information in the higher auditory centers within the brain, when the inputs to those centers comes from an impaired peripheral auditory system. It is hoped that an understanding of the manner in which the temporal information is distorted or lost, as determined by these studies, will help in understanding the functional deficits experienced by hearing-impaired people in their everyday lives.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01DC000626-21S1
Application #
7850347
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IFCN-6 (01))
Program Officer
Miller, Roger
Project Start
2009-08-01
Project End
2011-10-31
Budget Start
2009-08-01
Budget End
2011-10-31
Support Year
21
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$142,068
Indirect Cost
Name
Oregon Health and Science University
Department
Otolaryngology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
096997515
City
Portland
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97239
Mertes, Ian B; Wilbanks, Erin C; Leek, Marjorie R (2018) Olivocochlear Efferent Activity Is Associated With the Slope of the Psychometric Function of Speech Recognition in Noise. Ear Hear 39:583-593
Shearer, Daniel E; Molis, Michelle R; Bennett, Keri O et al. (2018) Auditory stream segregation of iterated rippled noises by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 143:378
Mertes, Ian B; Leek, Marjorie R (2016) Concurrent measures of contralateral suppression of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions and of auditory steady-state responses. J Acoust Soc Am 140:2027
Molis, Michelle R; Diedesch, Anna; Gallun, Frederick et al. (2013) Vowel identification by amplitude and phase contrast. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 14:125-37
Bennett, Keri O'Connell; Billings, Curtis J; Molis, Michelle R et al. (2012) Neural encoding and perception of speech signals in informational masking. Ear Hear 33:231-8
Billings, Curtis J; Bennett, Keri O; Molis, Michelle R et al. (2011) Cortical encoding of signals in noise: effects of stimulus type and recording paradigm. Ear Hear 32:53-60
Molis, Michelle R; Leek, Marjorie R (2011) Vowel identification by listeners with hearing impairment in response to variation in formant frequencies. J Speech Lang Hear Res 54:1211-23
Lauer, Amanda M; Dooling, Robert J; Leek, Marjorie R (2009) Psychophysical evidence of damaged active processing mechanisms in Belgian Waterslager Canaries. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 195:193-202
Lauer, Amanda M; Molis, Michelle; Leek, Marjorie R (2009) Discrimination of time-reversed harmonic complexes by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 10:609-19
Lauer, Amanda M; Dooling, Robert J; Leek, Marjorie R et al. (2007) Detection and discrimination of simple and complex sounds by hearing-impaired Belgian Waterslager canaries. J Acoust Soc Am 122:3615-27

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