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Tune S, Obleser J. Neural attentional filters and behavioural outcome follow independent individual trajectories over the adult lifespan. eLife 2024; 12:RP92079. [PMID: 38470243 DOI: 10.7554/elife.92079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Preserved communication abilities promote healthy ageing. To this end, the age-typical loss of sensory acuity might in part be compensated for by an individual's preserved attentional neural filtering. Is such a compensatory brain-behaviour link longitudinally stable? Can it predict individual change in listening behaviour? We here show that individual listening behaviour and neural filtering ability follow largely independent developmental trajectories modelling electroencephalographic and behavioural data of N = 105 ageing individuals (39-82 y). First, despite the expected decline in hearing-threshold-derived sensory acuity, listening-task performance proved stable over 2 y. Second, neural filtering and behaviour were correlated only within each separate measurement timepoint (T1, T2). Longitudinally, however, our results raise caution on attention-guided neural filtering metrics as predictors of individual trajectories in listening behaviour: neither neural filtering at T1 nor its 2-year change could predict individual 2-year behavioural change, under a combination of modelling strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Tune
- Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
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2
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Panela RA, Copelli F, Herrmann B. Reliability and generalizability of neural speech tracking in younger and older adults. Neurobiol Aging 2024; 134:165-180. [PMID: 38103477 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2023] [Revised: 11/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Neural tracking of spoken speech is considered a potential clinical biomarker for speech-processing difficulties, but the reliability of neural speech tracking is unclear. Here, younger and older adults listened to stories in two sessions while electroencephalography was recorded to investigate the reliability and generalizability of neural speech tracking. Speech tracking amplitude was larger for older than younger adults, consistent with an age-related loss of inhibition. The reliability of neural speech tracking was moderate (ICC ∼0.5-0.75) and tended to be higher for older adults. However, reliability was lower for speech tracking than for neural responses to noise bursts (ICC >0.8), which we used as a benchmark for maximum reliability. Neural speech tracking generalized moderately across different stories (ICC ∼0.5-0.6), which appeared greatest for audiobook-like stories spoken by the same person. Hence, a variety of stories could possibly be used for clinical assessments. Overall, the current data are important for developing a biomarker of speech processing but suggest that further work is needed to increase the reliability to meet clinical standards.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan A Panela
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, M6A 2E1 North York, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1 Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Francesca Copelli
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, M6A 2E1 North York, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1 Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, M6A 2E1 North York, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, M5S 1A1 Toronto, ON, Canada.
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Zhang X, Li J, Li Z, Hong B, Diao T, Ma X, Nolte G, Engel AK, Zhang D. Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension. Neuroimage 2023; 282:120404. [PMID: 37806465 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2023] [Revised: 08/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the distortion of speech signals caused by unavoidable noise in daily life, our ability to comprehend speech in noisy environments is relatively stable. However, the neural mechanisms underlying reliable speech-in-noise comprehension remain to be elucidated. The present study investigated the neural tracking of acoustic and semantic speech information during noisy naturalistic speech comprehension. Participants listened to narrative audio recordings mixed with spectrally matched stationary noise at three signal-to-ratio (SNR) levels (no noise, 3 dB, -3 dB), and 60-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded. A temporal response function (TRF) method was employed to derive event-related-like responses to the continuous speech stream at both the acoustic and the semantic levels. Whereas the amplitude envelope of the naturalistic speech was taken as the acoustic feature, word entropy and word surprisal were extracted via the natural language processing method as two semantic features. Theta-band frontocentral TRF responses to the acoustic feature were observed at around 400 ms following speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels, and the response latencies were more delayed with increasing noise. Delta-band frontal TRF responses to the semantic feature of word entropy were observed at around 200 to 600 ms leading to speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels. The response latencies became more leading with increasing noise and decreasing speech comprehension and intelligibility. While the following responses to speech acoustics were consistent with previous studies, our study revealed the robustness of leading responses to speech semantics, which suggests a possible predictive mechanism at the semantic level for maintaining reliable speech comprehension in noisy environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinmiao Zhang
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jiawei Li
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 14195, Federal Republic of Germany
| | - Zhuoran Li
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Bo Hong
- Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Tongxiang Diao
- Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Peking University, People's Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
| | - Xin Ma
- Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Peking University, People's Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
| | - Guido Nolte
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Federal Republic of Germany
| | - Andreas K Engel
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Federal Republic of Germany
| | - Dan Zhang
- Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
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Van Hirtum T, Somers B, Dieudonné B, Verschueren E, Wouters J, Francart T. Neural envelope tracking predicts speech intelligibility and hearing aid benefit in children with hearing loss. Hear Res 2023; 439:108893. [PMID: 37806102 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023]
Abstract
Early assessment of hearing aid benefit is crucial, as the extent to which hearing aids provide audible speech information predicts speech and language outcomes. A growing body of research has proposed neural envelope tracking as an objective measure of speech intelligibility, particularly for individuals unable to provide reliable behavioral feedback. However, its potential for evaluating speech intelligibility and hearing aid benefit in children with hearing loss remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated neural envelope tracking in children with permanent hearing loss through two separate experiments. EEG data were recorded while children listened to age-appropriate stories (Experiment 1) or an animated movie (Experiment 2) under aided and unaided conditions (using personal hearing aids) at multiple stimulus intensities. Neural envelope tracking was evaluated using a linear decoder reconstructing the speech envelope from the EEG in the delta band (0.5-4 Hz). Additionally, we calculated temporal response functions (TRFs) to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of the response. In both experiments, neural tracking increased with increasing stimulus intensity, but only in the unaided condition. In the aided condition, neural tracking remained stable across a wide range of intensities, as long as speech intelligibility was maintained. Similarly, TRF amplitudes increased with increasing stimulus intensity in the unaided condition, while in the aided condition significant differences were found in TRF latency rather than TRF amplitude. This suggests that decreasing stimulus intensity does not necessarily impact neural tracking. Furthermore, the use of personal hearing aids significantly enhanced neural envelope tracking, particularly in challenging speech conditions that would be inaudible when unaided. Finally, we found a strong correlation between neural envelope tracking and behaviorally measured speech intelligibility for both narrated stories (Experiment 1) and movie stimuli (Experiment 2). Altogether, these findings indicate that neural envelope tracking could be a valuable tool for predicting speech intelligibility benefits derived from personal hearing aids in hearing-impaired children. Incorporating narrated stories or engaging movies expands the accessibility of these methods even in clinical settings, offering new avenues for using objective speech measures to guide pediatric audiology decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilde Van Hirtum
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Ben Somers
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Benjamin Dieudonné
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Eline Verschueren
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tom Francart
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
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Puffay C, Vanthornhout J, Gillis M, Accou B, Van Hamme H, Francart T. Robust neural tracking of linguistic speech representations using a convolutional neural network. J Neural Eng 2023; 20:046040. [PMID: 37595606 DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/acf1ce] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 08/18/2023] [Indexed: 08/20/2023]
Abstract
Objective.When listening to continuous speech, populations of neurons in the brain track different features of the signal. Neural tracking can be measured by relating the electroencephalography (EEG) and the speech signal. Recent studies have shown a significant contribution of linguistic features over acoustic neural tracking using linear models. However, linear models cannot model the nonlinear dynamics of the brain. To overcome this, we use a convolutional neural network (CNN) that relates EEG to linguistic features using phoneme or word onsets as a control and has the capacity to model non-linear relations.Approach.We integrate phoneme- and word-based linguistic features (phoneme surprisal, cohort entropy (CE), word surprisal (WS) and word frequency (WF)) in our nonlinear CNN model and investigate if they carry additional information on top of lexical features (phoneme and word onsets). We then compare the performance of our nonlinear CNN with that of a linear encoder and a linearized CNN.Main results.For the non-linear CNN, we found a significant contribution of CE over phoneme onsets and of WS and WF over word onsets. Moreover, the non-linear CNN outperformed the linear baselines.Significance.Measuring coding of linguistic features in the brain is important for auditory neuroscience research and applications that involve objectively measuring speech understanding. With linear models, this is measurable, but the effects are very small. The proposed non-linear CNN model yields larger differences between linguistic and lexical models and, therefore, could show effects that would otherwise be unmeasurable and may, in the future, lead to improved within-subject measures and shorter recordings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corentin Puffay
- Department Neurosciences, ExpORL, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Electrical engineering (ESAT), PSI, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Marlies Gillis
- Department Neurosciences, ExpORL, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Bernd Accou
- Department Neurosciences, ExpORL, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Electrical engineering (ESAT), PSI, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Hugo Van Hamme
- Department of Electrical engineering (ESAT), PSI, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tom Francart
- Department Neurosciences, ExpORL, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Gillis M, Vanthornhout J, Francart T. Heard or Understood? Neural Tracking of Language Features in a Comprehensible Story, an Incomprehensible Story and a Word List. eNeuro 2023; 10:ENEURO.0075-23.2023. [PMID: 37451862 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0075-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/25/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Speech comprehension is a complex neural process on which relies on activation and integration of multiple brain regions. In the current study, we evaluated whether speech comprehension can be investigated by neural tracking. Neural tracking is the phenomenon in which the brain responses time-lock to the rhythm of specific features in continuous speech. These features can be acoustic, i.e., acoustic tracking, or derived from the content of the speech using language properties, i.e., language tracking. We evaluated whether neural tracking of speech differs between a comprehensible story, an incomprehensible story, and a word list. We evaluated the neural responses to speech of 19 participants (six men). No significant difference regarding acoustic tracking was found. However, significant language tracking was only found for the comprehensible story. The most prominent effect was visible to word surprisal, a language feature at the word level. The neural response to word surprisal showed a prominent negativity between 300 and 400 ms, similar to the N400 in evoked response paradigms. This N400 was significantly more negative when the story was comprehended, i.e., when words could be integrated in the context of previous words. These results show that language tracking can capture the effect of speech comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlies Gillis
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Jonas Vanthornhout
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Tom Francart
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium
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Van Hirtum T, Somers B, Verschueren E, Dieudonné B, Francart T. Delta-band neural envelope tracking predicts speech intelligibility in noise in preschoolers. Hear Res 2023; 434:108785. [PMID: 37172414 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2023] [Revised: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Behavioral tests are currently the gold standard in measuring speech intelligibility. However, these tests can be difficult to administer in young children due to factors such as motivation, linguistic knowledge and cognitive skills. It has been shown that measures of neural envelope tracking can be used to predict speech intelligibility and overcome these issues. However, its potential as an objective measure for speech intelligibility in noise remains to be investigated in preschool children. Here, we evaluated neural envelope tracking as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in 14 5-year-old children. We examined EEG responses to natural, continuous speech presented at different SNRs ranging from -8 (very difficult) to 8 dB SNR (very easy). As expected delta band (0.5-4 Hz) tracking increased with increasing stimulus SNR. However, this increase was not strictly monotonic as neural tracking reached a plateau between 0 and 4 dB SNR, similarly to the behavioral speech intelligibility outcomes. These findings indicate that neural tracking in the delta band remains stable, as long as the acoustical degradation of the speech signal does not reflect significant changes in speech intelligibility. Theta band tracking (4-8 Hz), on the other hand, was found to be drastically reduced and more easily affected by noise in children, making it less reliable as a measure of speech intelligibility. By contrast, neural envelope tracking in the delta band was directly associated with behavioral measures of speech intelligibility. This suggests that neural envelope tracking in the delta band is a valuable tool for evaluating speech-in-noise intelligibility in preschoolers, highlighting its potential as an objective measure of speech in difficult-to-test populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilde Van Hirtum
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, Leuven 3000, Belgium.
| | - Ben Somers
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Eline Verschueren
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Benjamin Dieudonné
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Tom Francart
- KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology, Herestraat 49 bus 721, Leuven 3000, Belgium
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Xie Z, Brodbeck C, Chandrasekaran B. Cortical Tracking of Continuous Speech Under Bimodal Divided Attention. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2023; 4:318-343. [PMID: 37229509 PMCID: PMC10205152 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Speech processing often occurs amid competing inputs from other modalities, for example, listening to the radio while driving. We examined the extent to which dividing attention between auditory and visual modalities (bimodal divided attention) impacts neural processing of natural continuous speech from acoustic to linguistic levels of representation. We recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) responses when human participants performed a challenging primary visual task, imposing low or high cognitive load while listening to audiobook stories as a secondary task. The two dual-task conditions were contrasted with an auditory single-task condition in which participants attended to stories while ignoring visual stimuli. Behaviorally, the high load dual-task condition was associated with lower speech comprehension accuracy relative to the other two conditions. We fitted multivariate temporal response function encoding models to predict EEG responses from acoustic and linguistic speech features at different representation levels, including auditory spectrograms and information-theoretic models of sublexical-, word-form-, and sentence-level representations. Neural tracking of most acoustic and linguistic features remained unchanged with increasing dual-task load, despite unambiguous behavioral and neural evidence of the high load dual-task condition being more demanding. Compared to the auditory single-task condition, dual-task conditions selectively reduced neural tracking of only some acoustic and linguistic features, mainly at latencies >200 ms, while earlier latencies were surprisingly unaffected. These findings indicate that behavioral effects of bimodal divided attention on continuous speech processing occur not because of impaired early sensory representations but likely at later cognitive processing stages. Crossmodal attention-related mechanisms may not be uniform across different speech processing levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zilong Xie
- School of Communication Science and Disorders, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Christian Brodbeck
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Bharath Chandrasekaran
- Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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De Clercq P, Vanthornhout J, Vandermosten M, Francart T. Beyond linear neural envelope tracking: a mutual information approach. J Neural Eng 2023; 20. [PMID: 36812597 DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/acbe1d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
Objective.The human brain tracks the temporal envelope of speech, which contains essential cues for speech understanding. Linear models are the most common tool to study neural envelope tracking. However, information on how speech is processed can be lost since nonlinear relations are precluded. Analysis based on mutual information (MI), on the other hand, can detect both linear and nonlinear relations and is gradually becoming more popular in the field of neural envelope tracking. Yet, several different approaches to calculating MI are applied with no consensus on which approach to use. Furthermore, the added value of nonlinear techniques remains a subject of debate in the field. The present paper aims to resolve these open questions.Approach.We analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) data of participants listening to continuous speech and applied MI analyses and linear models.Main results.Comparing the different MI approaches, we conclude that results are most reliable and robust using the Gaussian copula approach, which first transforms the data to standard Gaussians. With this approach, the MI analysis is a valid technique for studying neural envelope tracking. Like linear models, it allows spatial and temporal interpretations of speech processing, peak latency analyses, and applications to multiple EEG channels combined. In a final analysis, we tested whether nonlinear components were present in the neural response to the envelope by first removing all linear components in the data. We robustly detected nonlinear components on the single-subject level using the MI analysis.Significance.We demonstrate that the human brain processes speech in a nonlinear way. Unlike linear models, the MI analysis detects such nonlinear relations, proving its added value to neural envelope tracking. In addition, the MI analysis retains spatial and temporal characteristics of speech processing, an advantage lost when using more complex (nonlinear) deep neural networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pieter De Clercq
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jonas Vanthornhout
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | - Maaike Vandermosten
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tom Francart
- Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
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