scholarly journals Audio-tactile enhancement of cortical speech-envelope tracking

NeuroImage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 116134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Riecke ◽  
Sophia Snipes ◽  
Sander van Bree ◽  
Amanda Kaas ◽  
Lars Hausfeld
Keyword(s):  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
Tactile Enhancement

scholarly journals Neural envelope tracking as a measure of speech understanding in cochlear implant users

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eline Verschueren ◽  
Ben Somers ◽  
Tom Francart
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Closed Loop ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Speech Understanding ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Actual Speech ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg ◽  
Automatic Fitting

ABSTRACTThe speech envelope is essential for speech understanding and can be reconstructed from the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded while listening to running speech. This so-called neural envelope tracking has been shown to relate to speech understanding in normal hearing listeners, but has barely been investigated in persons wearing cochlear implants (CI). We investigated the relation between speech understanding and neural envelope tracking in CI users.EEG was recorded in 8 CI users while they listened to a story. Speech understanding was varied by changing the intensity of the presented speech. The speech envelope was reconstructed from the EEG using a linear decoder and then correlated with the envelope of the speech stimulus as a measure of neural envelope tracking which was compared to actual speech understanding.This study showed that neural envelope tracking increased with increasing speech understanding in every participant. Furthermore behaviorally measured speech understanding was correlated with participant specific neural envelope tracking results indicating the potential of neural envelope tracking as an objective measure of speech understanding in CI users. This could enable objective and automatic fitting of CIs and pave the way towards closed-loop CIs that adjust continuously and automatically to individual CI users.

scholarly journals Auditory and Language Contributions to Neural Encoding of Speech Features in Noisy Environments

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiajie Zou ◽  
Jun Feng ◽  
Tianyong Xu ◽  
Peiqing Jin ◽  
Cheng Luo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Noise Intensity ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
Noise Robust ◽  
Temporal Profiles

AbstractRecognizing speech in noisy environments is a challenging task that involves both auditory and language mechanisms. Previous studies have demonstrated noise-robust neural tracking of the speech envelope, i.e., fluctuations in sound intensity, in human auditory cortex, which provides a plausible neural basis for noise-robust speech recognition. The current study aims at teasing apart auditory and language contributions to noise-robust envelope tracking by comparing 2 groups of listeners, i.e., native listeners of the testing language and foreign listeners who do not understand the testing language. In the experiment, speech is mixed with spectrally matched stationary noise at 4 intensity levels and the neural responses are recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). When the noise intensity increases, an increase in neural response gain is observed for both groups of listeners, demonstrating auditory gain control mechanisms. Language comprehension creates no overall boost in the response gain or the envelope-tracking precision but instead modulates the spatial and temporal profiles of envelope-tracking activity. Based on the spatio-temporal dynamics of envelope-tracking activity, the 2 groups of listeners and the 4 levels of noise intensity can be jointly decoded by a linear classifier. All together, the results show that without feedback from language processing, auditory mechanisms such as gain control can lead to a noise-robust speech representation. High-level language processing, however, further modulates the spatial-temporal profiles of the neural representation of the speech envelope.

scholarly journals Selective Attention Modulates Neural Envelope Tracking of Informationally Masked Speech in Healthy Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira Kurthen ◽  
Jolanda Galbier ◽  
Laura Jagoda ◽  
Pia Neuschwander ◽  
Nathalie Giroud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Informational Masking ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Speech In Noise ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
Age Range

AbstractSpeech understanding in noisy situations is compromised in old age. This study investigated the energetic and informational masking components of multi-talker babble noise and their influence on neural tracking of the speech envelope in a sample of healthy older adults. Twenty-three older adults (age range 65 - 80 years) listened to an audiobook embedded in noise while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Energetic masking was manipulated by varying the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) between target speech and background talkers and informational masking was manipulated by varying the number of background talkers. Neural envelope tracking was measured by calculating temporal response functions (TRFs) between speech envelope and EEG. Number of background talkers, but not SNR modulated the amplitude of an earlier (around 50 ms time lag) and a later (around 300 ms time lag) peak in the TRFs. Selective attention, but not working memory or peripheral hearing additionally modulated the amplitude of the later TRF peak. Finally, amplitude of the later TRF peak was positively related to accuracy in the comprehension task. The results suggest that stronger envelope tracking is beneficial for speech-in-noise understanding and that selective attention is an important ability supporting speech-in-noise understanding in multi-talker scenes.

scholarly journals Joint entrainment to the speech envelope during speaking and listening cannot completely explain brain-to-brain synchronisation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Pérez ◽  
Matthew H. Davis ◽  
Robin A A Ince ◽  
Hanna Zhang ◽  
Zhanao Fu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Gaussian Copula ◽  
Auditory Presentation ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Eeg Signal ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Speech Envelope

Speakers and listeners coordinate brain activity during conversation. How this is done is less well understood. It could be due only to hearing the same speech—i.e., self–produced speech when speaking, and another’s speech when listening. Or, it could be due to coordination beyond that which is explained by the physical acoustic characteristics of the signal alone. This study investigates the dynamics of speech envelope tracking and inter–brain coupling during speaking and listening. After time–locking EEG data collection and auditory recording and playback, we used a Gaussian copula mutual information measure to estimate related information content between the EEG and auditory signals, as well as between two different EEG signals from the same participant. We refer to this design as auto–pseudo–hyperscanning. In the 2–10 Hz frequency range, we identified different latencies for maximal speech envelope tracking during speech production and speech perception. Maximal speech tracking takes place after auditory presentation during perception and before vocalisation during speech production. We also identified time–lags showing a significant increase in time–locked EEG responses during speaking and self–listening: The EEG signal in the listener both preceded and followed the EEG signal of the speaker at latencies beyond those that could be explained by auditory entrainment during speech perception or production. The results indicate that brain–to–brain synchronisation during speaking and listening cannot be explained only by joint entrainment to the speech envelope.

scholarly journals Evidence for enhanced neural tracking of the speech envelope underlying age-related speech-in-noise difficulties

2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 601-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lien Decruy ◽  
Jonas Vanthornhout ◽  
Tom Francart
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Speech Understanding ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Speech In Noise ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Steady State Responses ◽  
Auditory Steady State Responses ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
State Responses

When we grow older, understanding speech in noise becomes more challenging. Research has demonstrated the role of auditory temporal and cognitive deficits in these age-related speech-in-noise difficulties. To better understand the underlying neural mechanisms, we recruited young, middle-aged, and older normal-hearing adults and investigated the interplay between speech understanding, cognition, and neural tracking of the speech envelope using electroencephalography. The stimuli consisted of natural speech masked by speech-weighted noise or a competing talker and were presented at several subject-specific speech understanding levels. In addition to running speech, we recorded auditory steady-state responses at low modulation frequencies to assess the effect of age on nonspeech sounds. The results show that healthy aging resulted in a supralinear increase in the speech reception threshold, i.e., worse speech understanding, most pronounced for the competing talker. Similarly, advancing age was associated with a supralinear increase in envelope tracking, with a pronounced enhancement for older adults. Additionally, envelope tracking was found to increase with speech understanding, most apparent for older adults. Because we found that worse cognitive scores were associated with enhanced envelope tracking, our results support the hypothesis that enhanced envelope tracking in older adults is the result of a higher activation of brain regions for processing speech, compared with younger adults. From a cognitive perspective, this could reflect the inefficient use of cognitive resources, often observed in behavioral studies. Interestingly, the opposite effect of age was found for auditory steady-state responses, suggesting a complex interplay of different neural mechanisms with advancing age. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We measured neural tracking of the speech envelope across the adult lifespan and found a supralinear increase in envelope tracking with age. Using a more ecologically valid approach than auditory steady-state responses, we found that young and older, as well as middle-aged, normal-hearing adults showed an increase in envelope tracking with increasing speech understanding and that this association is stronger for older adults.

scholarly journals Two Stages of Speech Envelope Tracking in Human Auditory Cortex Modulated by Speech Intelligibility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Xu ◽  
Baotian Zhao ◽  
Lu Luo ◽  
Kai Zhang ◽  
Xiaoqiu Shao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Primary Auditory Cortex ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Power Stage ◽  
Human Auditory Cortex ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Vocoded Speech

The envelope is essential for speech perception. Recent studies have shown that cortical activity can track the acoustic envelope. However, whether the tracking strength reflects the extent of speech intelligibility processing remains controversial. Here, using stereo-electroencephalogram (sEEG) technology, we directly recorded the activity in human auditory cortex while subjects listened to either natural or noise-vocoded speech. These two stimuli have approximately identical envelopes, but the noise-vocoded speech does not have speech intelligibility. We found two stages of envelope tracking in auditory cortex: an early high-γ (60-140 Hz) power stage (delay ≈ 49 ms) that preferred the noise-vocoded speech, and a late θ (4-8 Hz) phase stage (delay ≈ 178 ms) that preferred the natural speech. Furthermore, the decoding performance of high-γ power was better in primary auditory cortex than in non-primary auditory cortex, consistent with its short tracking delay. We also found distinct lateralization effects: high-γ power envelope tracking dominated left auditory cortex, while θ phase showed better decoding performance in right auditory cortex. In sum, we suggested a functional dissociation between high-γ power and θ phase: the former reflects fast and automatic processing of brief acoustic features, while the latter correlates to slow build-up processing facilitated by speech intelligibility.

scholarly journals The origins and development of speech envelope tracking during the first months of life

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 100915
Author(s):  
Maria Clemencia Ortiz Barajas ◽  
Ramón Guevara ◽  
Judit Gervain
Keyword(s):  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Speech Envelope

scholarly journals Low-frequency neural tracking of natural speech envelope reflects evoked responses to acoustic edges, not oscillatory entrainment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsuaki Kojima ◽  
Yulia Oganian ◽  
Chang Cai ◽  
Anne Findlay ◽  
Edward Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phase Locking ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Evoked Response ◽  
Evoked Responses ◽  
Amplitude Envelope ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Multiple Cycles ◽  
Speech Envelope

AbstractThe amplitude envelope of speech is crucial for accurate comprehension, and several studies have shown that the phase of neural activity in the theta-delta bands (1 - 10 Hz) tracks the phase of the speech amplitude envelope during listening, a process referred to as envelope tracking. However, the mechanisms underlying envelope tracking have been heavily debated. A dominant model posits that envelope tracking reflects continuous entrainment of endogenous low-frequency oscillations to the speech envelope. However, it has proven challenging to distinguish this from the alternative that envelope tracking reflects evoked responses to acoustic landmarks within the envelope. Here we recorded magnetoencephalography while participants listened to natural and slowed speech to test two critical predictions of the entrainment model: (1) that the frequency range of phase-locking reflects the stimulus speech rate and (2) that an entrained oscillator will resonate for multiple cycles after a landmark-driven phase reset. We found that peaks in the rate of envelope change, acoustic edges, induced evoked responses and theta phase locking. Crucially, the frequency range of this phase locking was independent of the speech rate and transient, in line with the evoked response account. Further comparisons between regular and slowed speech revealed that encoding of acoustic edge magnitudes was invariant to contextual speech rate, demonstrating that it was normalized for speech rate. Taken together, our results show that the evoked response model provides a better account of neural phase locking to the speech envelope than oscillatory entrainment.

scholarly journals Visual Input Enhances Selective Speech Envelope Tracking in Auditory Cortex at a "Cocktail Party"

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 1417-1426 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Zion Golumbic ◽  
G. B. Cogan ◽  
C. E. Schroeder ◽  
D. Poeppel
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Visual Input ◽  
Cocktail Party ◽  
Envelope Tracking ◽  
Speech Envelope

Effect of Consonant-Vowel Ratio Modification on Amplitude Envelope Cues for Consonant Recognition

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Freyman ◽  
G. Patrick Nerbonne ◽  
Heather A. Cote
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Intensity Ratio ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Amplitude Envelope ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Noise Masking ◽  
Spectral Cues ◽  
Consonant Recognition ◽  
Nonlinear Amplification ◽  
Speech Envelope

This investigation examined the degree to which modification of the consonant-vowel (C-V) intensity ratio affected consonant recognition under conditions in which listeners were forced to rely more heavily on waveform envelope cues than on spectral cues. The stimuli were 22 vowel-consonant-vowel utterances, which had been mixed at six different signal-to-noise ratios with white noise that had been modulated by the speech waveform envelope. The resulting waveforms preserved the gross speech envelope shape, but spectral cues were limited by the white-noise masking. In a second stimulus set, the consonant portion of each utterance was amplified by 10 dB. Sixteen subjects with normal hearing listened to the unmodified stimuli, and 16 listened to the amplified-consonant stimuli. Recognition performance was reduced in the amplified-consonant condition for some consonants, presumably because waveform envelope cues had been distorted. However, for other consonants, especially the voiced stops, consonant amplification improved recognition. Patterns of errors were altered for several consonant groups, including some that showed only small changes in recognition scores. The results indicate that when spectral cues are compromised, nonlinear amplification can alter waveform envelope cues for consonant recognition.

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