Connections 2007
 
Talk 7.2: 3:15PM–4:15PM

Session Name: Biomedical Applications and Artificial Perception
Session Time: 3:15PM–4:15PM
Author Name: Ewen MacDonald
Author Email: macdone@ecf.utoronto.ca
Talk Title: Making Young Ears Old
Slides: 7-2.ppt
Abstract: Older adults, even with good audiometric thresholds, have more difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments than younger adults do. While there are several age-related changes that can affect communication, a significant body of evidence suggests that a loss of synchrony (i.e. degradation in temporal coding) in the auditory periphery can occur with age. To examine the consequences of this age-related change, several experiments using a jitter technique to simulate a loss of synchrony in an otherwise normal auditory system have been conducted. The results suggest two significant conclusions: A loss of synchrony can lead to a decrease in speech intelligibility in noise; as well, it is possible to simulate this neural aspect of auditory aging in healthy young ears using the jitter technique.
Research Group: Biomedical
Degree Program: Ph.D.
Author Bio: Biography not submitted.