The training proposed supports the objective of a new translational research program for the PI that will focus on issues related to sound-segregation and music perception abilities of children and adults with CIs. The proposed experiments use new pattern-identification tasks in quiet and with various background sounds to test listeners' abilities to use frequency-based cues to separate relevant from irrelevant sounds. These non-speech measures are expected to increase our limited understanding of how language-independent processes contribute to the large individual differences observed in performance with CIs, and help guide new stimulus-processing or habilitation strategies to improve music perception. The approach can readily be extended to other types of stimuli, including speech patterns and backgrounds. The first specific aim is to determine the ability of young normal-hearing (NH) children to use frequency-based cues across pattern/background to aid pattern identification, with and without Cl simulations. The second specific aim is to use these same stimuli to characterize performance in adults with CIs.
The final aim i s to use what is learned in these earlier studies to optimally examine pattern identification in young children with CIs, the intended focus of the PI's future research program. In the course of completing these aims, the PI will acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and data for a competitive R21 or R01 application in this area.
