Moberly Aaron C, Reed Jessa
Department of Otolaryngology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2019 Aug 15;62(8):2895-2905. doi: 10.1044/2019_JSLHR-H-18-0472. Epub 2019 Jul 22.
Purpose Speech recognition relies upon a listener's successful pairing of the acoustic-phonetic details from the bottom-up input with top-down linguistic processing of the incoming speech stream. When the speech is spectrally degraded, such as through a cochlear implant (CI), this role of top-down processing is poorly understood. This study explored the interactions of top-down processing, specifically the use of semantic context during sentence recognition, and the relative contributions of different neurocognitive functions during speech recognition in adult CI users. Method Data from 41 experienced adult CI users were collected and used in analyses. Participants were tested for recognition and immediate repetition of speech materials in the clear. They were asked to repeat 2 sets of sentence materials, 1 that was semantically meaningful and 1 that was syntactically appropriate but semantically anomalous. Participants also were tested on 4 visual measures of neurocognitive functioning to assess working memory capacity (Digit Span; Wechsler, 2004), speed of lexical access (Test of Word Reading Efficiency; Torgeson, Wagner, & Rashotte, 1999), inhibitory control (Stroop; Stroop, 1935), and nonverbal fluid reasoning (Raven's Progressive Matrices; Raven, 2000). Results Individual listeners' inhibitory control predicted recognition of meaningful sentences when controlling for performance on anomalous sentences, our proxy for the quality of the bottom-up input. Additionally, speed of lexical access and nonverbal reasoning predicted recognition of anomalous sentences. Conclusions Findings from this study identified inhibitory control as a potential mechanism at work when listeners make use of semantic context during sentence recognition. Moreover, speed of lexical access and nonverbal reasoning were associated with recognition of sentences that lacked semantic context. These results motivate the development of improved comprehensive rehabilitative approaches for adult patients with CIs to optimize use of top-down processing and underlying core neurocognitive functions.
目的 语音识别依赖于听众将自下而上输入的声学语音细节与传入语音流的自上而下语言处理成功配对。当语音在频谱上退化时，例如通过人工耳蜗（CI），自上而下处理的这一作用还知之甚少。本研究探讨了自上而下处理的相互作用，特别是句子识别过程中语义语境的使用，以及成年人工耳蜗使用者语音识别过程中不同神经认知功能的相对贡献。方法 收集了41名有经验的成年人工耳蜗使用者的数据并用于分析。参与者接受了清晰语音材料的识别和即时重复测试。他们被要求重复两组句子材料，一组语义有意义，另一组句法合适但语义异常。参与者还接受了4项神经认知功能的视觉测试，以评估工作记忆容量（数字广度；韦克斯勒，2004年）、词汇提取速度（单词阅读效率测试；托尔格森、瓦格纳和拉肖特，1999年）、抑制控制（斯特鲁普；斯特鲁普，1935年）和非言语流体推理（瑞文渐进矩阵；瑞文，2000年）。结果 在控制异常句子（我们用于代表自下而上输入质量的指标）的表现时，个体听众的抑制控制能力预测了有意义句子的识别。此外，词汇提取速度和非言语推理能力预测了异常句子的识别。结论 本研究结果表明，抑制控制是听众在句子识别过程中利用语义语境时起作用的一种潜在机制。此外，词汇提取速度和非言语推理与缺乏语义语境的句子识别有关。这些结果促使为成年人工耳蜗患者开发改进的综合康复方法，以优化自上而下处理和潜在核心神经认知功能的使用。
