A challenging study on the plastic change in the assessment of "saliency" of sound.

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19547
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 56:Surgery related to the biological and sensory functions and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Kawase Tetsuaki 東北大学, 医学系研究科, 大学院非常勤講師 (50169728)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 菅野 彰剛 東北大学, 工学研究科, 特任教授 (20578968) ; 坂本 修一 東北大学, 電気通信研究所, 教授 (60332524)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: saliency / 聴覚的注意 / 可塑性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Whether the effects of distracting stimuli on selective attention can be modified by intervention were investigated, using pupil diameter, auditory evoked magnetic field, and speech intelligibility and the following results have been obtained; 1) a habituation phenomenon (i.e., a decreased response to repeated stimuli) was observed in pupil diameter changes during the same sound discrimination task,; 2) a habituation phenomenon caused by the repeated stimulation was also observed in the effect of distractors presented in the contralateral ear on the amplitude of the auditory evoked N100m response to tone bursts; and 3) In cases with listening difficulties, in which attention problems have been postulated to be involved, habituation phenomenon (reduction of inhibitory effects due to repeated presentation of disturbing sounds) to the reduction in word intelligibility caused by distractors presented to the contralateral ear was also observed.

Free Research Field

聴覚医学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

様々な環境音の「saliency（顕著性）」評価の指標とされてきた瞳孔径や誘発反応所見が介入により変化しうることは、「saliency（顕著性）」という属性の基盤を解明する上で重要な基礎的所見になると同時に、「音のsaliency（顕著性）」という概念そのものにも影響を与える可能性を示唆する重要な学術的意義を有する。
また、臨床的には、「介入による”saliency（顕著性）＝注意のひきつけ易さ“の低減誘導」は、音に対する注意の問題の関与が推察されている聴覚過敏や耳鳴、Listening difficulties症例などに対する新規治療法創出にもつながる基礎的知見となる（社会的意義）。