Travis White?Schwoch|Evan C. Davies|Elaine C. Thompson|Kali Woodruff Carr|Trent Nicol|Ann R. Bradlow|Nina Kraus
Auditory-neurophysiological responses to speech during early childhood: Effects of background noise
Northwestern University|Northwestern University
early childhood critical period auditory learning children constantly mapping sounds meaning auditory learning rarely occurs ideal listening conditionschildren forced listen relentless din background noise degrades neural coding critical sounds turn interfering auditory learning despite importance robust reliable auditory processing early childhood little known neurophysiology underlying speech processing children young better understand physiological constraints adverse listening scenarios impose speech sound coding early childhood auditoryneurophysiological responses elicited consonantvowel syllable quiet background noise cohort typicallydeveloping preschoolers ages 35 yr overall responses degraded noise smaller less stable across trials slower poorer coding spectral content temporal envelope effects exacerbated response consonant transition relative vowel suggesting neural coding spectrotemporallydynamic speech features tenuous noise coding static featureseven children young neural coding speech temporal fine structure however resilient addition background noise coding temporal envelope information taken together results demonstrate noise places neurophysiological constraint speech processing early childhood causing breakdown neural processing speech acoustics results may explain listeners inordinate difficulties understanding speech noise speechelicited auditoryneurophysiological responses offer objective insight listening skills early childhood reflecting integrity neural coding quiet noise paper documents typical response properties age group normative metrics may useful clinically evaluate auditory processing difficulties early childhood