Targeted Auditory Plasticity Training to Improve Central Hearing in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI)

Summary

The investigators are working on a project to help people who have had mild brain injuries hear better. Sometimes, these injuries can make it hard for people to hear clearly, especially in noisy places or when trying to tell where sounds are coming from. The project is testing special training exercises that have helped healthy people improve their hearing in these situations. The goal is to see if these exercises can also help people with mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI). If these exercises work, they could help doctors give better treatment to people with hearing problems after a brain injury. This would be especially helpful for soldiers who need to stay ready for duty. It could also make life better for veterans who struggle with hearing issues and help lower the cost of healthcare.

Description

Eligibility

Age range

18–55 years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

No

Interventions

• Other
  Speech in Noise Training

  The active controls will receive frequency discrimination training that uses the same visual landscape and basic task of controlling the wisp based on judgments about acoustic cues. The task requires participants to avoid obstacles by swiping upward or downward on the touchscreen to indicate whether a test frequency associated with the obstacle was higher or lower, respectively, than a target sound presented slightly before the test sound.

• Other
  Spatial Hearing Training Group

  Stimulus presentation and response measurement (Aim 2): Acoustic stimuli will be presented with a 360° speaker array that are fixed in place behind an opaque, nearly sound transparent, acoustic fabric curtain to avoid visual influences. Manual responses will be collected using a keyboard. Custom Matlab scripts control all relevant variables with millisecond precision. A webcam monitors the participant (not recorded) for the sole purpose of making sure the participant is always facing straight ahead. Sound localization task and training: Participants will judge the location of a target white noise sound (1000 ms, 70 dB SLP, 10-10,000 Hz) by moving an auditory pointer that appears 2 seconds after the offset of the target sound. The training group are given feedback about how their perceived location related to the actual sound location.

• Other
  Spatial Hearing Control Group

  Stimulus presentation and response measurement (Aim 2): Acoustic stimuli will be presented with a 360° speaker array that are fixed in place behind an opaque, nearly sound transparent, acoustic fabric curtain to avoid visual influences. Manual responses will be collected using a keyboard. Custom Matlab scripts control all relevant variables with millisecond precision. A webcam monitors the participant (not recorded) for the sole purpose of making sure the participant is always facing straight ahead. Sound localization task and training: Participants will judge the location of a target white noise sound (1000 ms, 70 dB SLP, 10-10,000 Hz) by moving an auditory pointer that appears 2 seconds after the offset of the target sound. The training group are NOT given feedback about how their perceived location related to the actual sound location.

Location