Neural Mechanisms Underlying Linguistic Context Use for Speech Processing in Aging

Speech signals are often acoustically ambiguous between multiple interpretations. This is exacerbated by the presence of background noise, and hearing disorders. A common strategy that listeners use in such situations is to use the linguistic context to fill in gaps in comprehension. The goal of this project is developing and testing explicit models of context use in continuous speech, how context use changes with age, and how it interacts with hearing loss. To test these models we will collect EEG and fMRI data, together with a range of cognitive and hearing related measures.

Team members include Ian Bruce (McMaster), Emily Myers and Thomas Hinchey (UConn) and Samira Anderson (U Maryland).

This project is funded by NIH.