1
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Issa MF, Khan I, Ruzzoli M, Molinaro N, Lizarazu M. On the speech envelope in the cortical tracking of speech. Neuroimage 2024; 297:120675. [PMID: 38885886 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120675] [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: 02/26/2024] [Revised: 06/05/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024] Open
Abstract
The synchronization between the speech envelope and neural activity in auditory regions, referred to as cortical tracking of speech (CTS), plays a key role in speech processing. The method selected for extracting the envelope is a crucial step in CTS measurement, and the absence of a consensus on best practices among the various methods can influence analysis outcomes and interpretation. Here, we systematically compare five standard envelope extraction methods the absolute value of Hilbert transform (absHilbert), gammatone filterbanks, heuristic approach, Bark scale, and vocalic energy), analyzing their impact on the CTS. We present performance metrics for each method based on the recording of brain activity from participants listening to speech in clear and noisy conditions, utilizing intracranial EEG, MEG and EEG data. As expected, we observed significant CTS in temporal brain regions below 10 Hz across all datasets, regardless of the extraction methods. In general, the gammatone filterbanks approach consistently demonstrated superior performance compared to other methods. Results from our study can guide scientists in the field to make informed decisions about the optimal analysis to extract the CTS, contributing to advancing the understanding of the neuronal mechanisms implicated in CTS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamed F Issa
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; Department of Scientific Computing, Faculty of Computers and Artificial Intelligence, Benha University, Benha, Egypt.
| | - Izhar Khan
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
| | - Manuela Ruzzoli
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Nicola Molinaro
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Mikel Lizarazu
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
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2
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Goheen J, Wolman A, Angeletti LL, Wolff A, Anderson JAE, Northoff G. Dynamic mechanisms that couple the brain and breathing to the external environment. Commun Biol 2024; 7:938. [PMID: 39097670 PMCID: PMC11297933 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06642-3] [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] [Received: 11/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/26/2024] [Indexed: 08/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Brain and breathing activities are closely related. However, the exact neurophysiological mechanisms that couple the brain and breathing to stimuli in the external environment are not yet agreed upon. Our data support that synchronization and dynamic attunement are two key mechanisms that couple local brain activity and breathing to external periodic stimuli. First, we review the existing literature, which provides strong evidence for the synchronization of brain and breathing in terms of coherence, cross-frequency coupling and phase-based entrainment. Second, using EEG and breathing data, we show that both the lungs and localized brain activity at the Cz channel attune the temporal structure of their power spectra to the periodic structure of external auditory inputs. We highlight the role of dynamic attunement in playing a key role in coordinating the tripartite temporal alignment of localized brain activity, breathing and input dynamics across longer timescales like minutes. Overall, this perspective sheds light on potential mechanisms of brain-breathing coupling and its alignment to stimuli in the external environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josh Goheen
- Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
- Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research associated with The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
| | - Angelika Wolman
- Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research associated with The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Lorenzo Lucherini Angeletti
- Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research associated with The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
- University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | | | | | - Georg Northoff
- Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research associated with The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
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3
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Kaya E, Kotz SA, Henry MJ. A novel method for estimating properties of attentional oscillators reveals an age-related decline in flexibility. eLife 2024; 12:RP90735. [PMID: 38904659 PMCID: PMC11192533 DOI: 10.7554/elife.90735] [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: 06/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Dynamic attending theory proposes that the ability to track temporal cues in the auditory environment is governed by entrainment, the synchronization between internal oscillations and regularities in external auditory signals. Here, we focused on two key properties of internal oscillators: their preferred rate, the default rate in the absence of any input; and their flexibility, how they adapt to changes in rhythmic context. We developed methods to estimate oscillator properties (Experiment 1) and compared the estimates across tasks and individuals (Experiment 2). Preferred rates, estimated as the stimulus rates with peak performance, showed a harmonic relationship across measurements and were correlated with individuals' spontaneous motor tempo. Estimates from motor tasks were slower than those from the perceptual task, and the degree of slowing was consistent for each individual. Task performance decreased with trial-to-trial changes in stimulus rate, and responses on individual trials were biased toward the preceding trial's stimulus properties. Flexibility, quantified as an individual's ability to adapt to faster-than-previous rates, decreased with age. These findings show domain-specific rate preferences for the assumed oscillatory system underlying rhythm perception and production, and that this system loses its ability to flexibly adapt to changes in the external rhythmic context during aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ece Kaya
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical AestheticsFrankfurtGermany
- Maastricht UniversityMaastrichtNetherlands
| | - Sonja A Kotz
- Maastricht UniversityMaastrichtNetherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain SciencesLeipzigGermany
| | - Molly J Henry
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical AestheticsFrankfurtGermany
- Toronto Metropolitan UniversityTorontoCanada
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4
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Huang Y, Cao C, Dai S, Deng H, Su L, Zheng JS. Magnetoencephalography-derived oscillatory microstate patterns across lifespan: the Cambridge centre for ageing and neuroscience cohort. Brain Commun 2024; 6:fcae150. [PMID: 38745970 PMCID: PMC11091929 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcae150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Revised: 03/01/2024] [Accepted: 04/26/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The aging brain represents the primary risk factor for many neurodegenerative disorders. Whole-brain oscillations may contribute novel early biomarkers of aging. Here, we investigated the dynamic oscillatory neural activities across lifespan (from 18 to 88 years) using resting Magnetoencephalography (MEG) in a large cohort of 624 individuals. Our aim was to examine the patterns of oscillation microstates during the aging process. By using a machine-learning algorithm, we identify four typical clusters of microstate patterns across different age groups and different frequency bands: left-to-right topographic MS1, right-to-left topographic MS2, anterior-posterior MS3 and fronto-central MS4. We observed a decreased alpha duration and an increased alpha occurrence for sensory-related microstate patterns (MS1 & MS2). Accordingly, theta and beta changes from MS1 & MS2 may be related to motor decline that increased with age. Furthermore, voluntary 'top-down' saliency/attention networks may be reflected by the increased MS3 & MS4 alpha occurrence and complementary beta activities. The findings of this study advance our knowledge of how the aging brain shows dysfunctions in neural state transitions. By leveraging the identified microstate patterns, this study provides new insights into predicting healthy aging and the potential neuropsychiatric cognitive decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yujing Huang
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Multi-Omics in Infection and Immunity, Center for Infectious Disease Research, School of Medicine, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Research Center for Industries of the Future, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Chenglong Cao
- Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, Anhui, China
| | - Shenyi Dai
- Department of Economics and Management, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Hangzhou iNeuro Technology Co., LTD, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Hu Deng
- Peking University Huilongguan Clinical Medical School, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Beijing 100096, China
| | - Li Su
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB20SZ, United Kingdom
- Neuroscience Institute, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S102HQ, United Kingdom
| | - Ju-Sheng Zheng
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Multi-Omics in Infection and Immunity, Center for Infectious Disease Research, School of Medicine, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Research Center for Industries of the Future, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
- Institute of Biology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang Province, China
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5
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Pando-Naude V, Matthews TE, Højlund A, Jakobsen S, Østergaard K, Johnsen E, Garza-Villarreal EA, Witek MAG, Penhune V, Vuust P. Dopamine dysregulation in Parkinson's disease flattens the pleasurable urge to move to musical rhythms. Eur J Neurosci 2024; 59:101-118. [PMID: 37724707 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.16128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
The pleasurable urge to move to music (PLUMM) activates motor and reward areas of the brain and is thought to be driven by predictive processes. Dopamine in motor and limbic networks is implicated in beat-based timing and music-induced pleasure, suggesting a central role of basal ganglia (BG) dopaminergic systems in PLUMM. This study tested this hypothesis by comparing PLUMM in participants with Parkinson's disease (PD), age-matched controls, and young controls. Participants listened to musical sequences with varying rhythmic and harmonic complexity (low, medium and high), and rated their experienced pleasure and urge to move to the rhythm. In line with previous results, healthy younger participants showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and ratings, with preference for medium complexity rhythms, while age-matched controls showed a similar, but weaker, inverted U-shaped response. Conversely, PD showed a significantly flattened response for both the urge to move and pleasure. Crucially, this flattened response could not be attributed to differences in rhythm discrimination and did not reflect an overall decrease in ratings. For harmonic complexity, PD showed a negative linear pattern for both the urge to move and pleasure while healthy age-matched controls showed the same pattern for pleasure and an inverted U for the urge to move. This contrasts with the pattern observed in young healthy controls in previous studies, suggesting that both healthy aging and PD also influence affective responses to harmonic complexity. Together, these results support the role of dopamine within cortico-striatal circuits in the predictive processes that form the link between the perceptual processing of rhythmic patterns and the affective and motor responses to rhythmic music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor Pando-Naude
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Tomas Edward Matthews
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Andreas Højlund
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Sebastian Jakobsen
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Karen Østergaard
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
- Sano, Private Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Erik Johnsen
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Eduardo A Garza-Villarreal
- Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Juriquilla, Querétaro, Mexico
| | - Maria A G Witek
- Department of Music School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Virginia Penhune
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark
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6
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Kraus F, Obleser J, Herrmann B. Pupil Size Sensitivity to Listening Demand Depends on Motivational State. eNeuro 2023; 10:ENEURO.0288-23.2023. [PMID: 37989588 PMCID: PMC10734370 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0288-23.2023] [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] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/22/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Motivation plays a role when a listener needs to understand speech under acoustically demanding conditions. Previous work has demonstrated pupil-linked arousal being sensitive to both listening demands and motivational state during listening. It is less clear how motivational state affects the temporal evolution of the pupil size and its relation to subsequent behavior. We used an auditory gap detection task (N = 33) to study the joint impact of listening demand and motivational state on the pupil size response and examine its temporal evolution. Task difficulty and a listener's motivational state were orthogonally manipulated through changes in gap duration and monetary reward prospect. We show that participants' performance decreased with task difficulty, but that reward prospect enhanced performance under hard listening conditions. Pupil size increased with both increased task difficulty and higher reward prospect, and this reward prospect effect was largest under difficult listening conditions. Moreover, pupil size time courses differed between detected and missed gaps, suggesting that the pupil response indicates upcoming behavior. Larger pre-gap pupil size was further associated with faster response times on a trial-by-trial within-participant level. Our results reiterate the utility of pupil size as an objective and temporally sensitive measure in audiology. However, such assessments of cognitive resource recruitment need to consider the individual's motivational state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frauke Kraus
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, Toronto M6A 2E1, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 3G3, Ontario, Canada
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7
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Xu N, Qin X, Zhou Z, Shan W, Ren J, Yang C, Lu L, Wang Q. Age differentially modulates the cortical tracking of the lower and higher level linguistic structures during speech comprehension. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:10463-10474. [PMID: 37566910 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad296] [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: 12/10/2022] [Revised: 07/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/24/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Speech comprehension requires listeners to rapidly parse continuous speech into hierarchically-organized linguistic structures (i.e. syllable, word, phrase, and sentence) and entrain the neural activities to the rhythm of different linguistic levels. Aging is accompanied by changes in speech processing, but it remains unclear how aging affects different levels of linguistic representation. Here, we recorded magnetoencephalography signals in older and younger groups when subjects actively and passively listened to the continuous speech in which hierarchical linguistic structures of word, phrase, and sentence were tagged at 4, 2, and 1 Hz, respectively. A newly-developed parameterization algorithm was applied to separate the periodically linguistic tracking from the aperiodic component. We found enhanced lower-level (word-level) tracking, reduced higher-level (phrasal- and sentential-level) tracking, and reduced aperiodic offset in older compared with younger adults. Furthermore, we observed the attentional modulation on the sentential-level tracking being larger for younger than for older ones. Notably, the neuro-behavior analyses showed that subjects' behavioral accuracy was positively correlated with the higher-level linguistic tracking, reversely correlated with the lower-level linguistic tracking. Overall, these results suggest that the enhanced lower-level linguistic tracking, reduced higher-level linguistic tracking and less flexibility of attentional modulation may underpin aging-related decline in speech comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Na Xu
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
| | - Xiaoxiao Qin
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
| | - Ziqi Zhou
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
| | - Wei Shan
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
| | - Jiechuan Ren
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
| | - Chunqing Yang
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
| | - Lingxi Lu
- Center for the Cognitive Science of Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Qun Wang
- Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100070, China
- National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing 100070, China
- Beijing Institute of Brain Disorders, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Disorders, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China
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8
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Pearson DV, Shen Y, McAuley JD, Kidd GR. The effect of rhythm on selective listening in multiple-source environments for young and older adults. Hear Res 2023; 435:108789. [PMID: 37276686 PMCID: PMC10460128 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Revised: 05/03/2023] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Understanding continuous speech with competing background sounds is challenging, particularly for older adults. One stimulus property that may aid listeners understanding of to-be-attended (target) material is temporal regularity (rhythm). In the context of speech-in-noise understanding, McAuley and colleagues recently showed a target rhythm effect whereby recognition of target speech was better when natural speech rhythm of a target talker was intact than when it was temporally altered. The current study replicates the target rhythm effect using a synthetic vowel sequence paradigm in young adults (Experiment 1) and then uses this paradigm to investigate potential age-related changes in the effect of rhythm on recognition (Experiment 2). Listeners identified the last three vowels of temporally regular (isochronous) and irregular (anisochronous) synthetic vowel sequences in quiet and with a competing background sequence of vowel-like harmonic tone complexes presented at various tempos. The results replicated the target rhythm effect whereby temporal regularity in the vowel sequences improved identification accuracy of young listeners compared to irregular vowel sequences. The magnitude of the effect was not found to be influenced by background tempo, but faster background tempos led to greater vowel identification accuracy independent of regularity. Older listeners also demonstrated a target rhythm effect but received less benefit from the temporal regularity of the target sequences than did young listeners. This study highlights the importance of rhythm for understanding age-related differences in selective listening in complex environments and provides a novel paradigm for investigating effects of rhythm on perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan V Pearson
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, United States.
| | - Yi Shen
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, United States
| | - J Devin McAuley
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, United States
| | - Gary R Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, United States
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9
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Zhang X, Lu B, Chen C, Yang L, Chen W, Yao D, Hou J, Qiu J, Li F, Xu P. The correlation between upper body grip strength and resting-state EEG network. Med Biol Eng Comput 2023:10.1007/s11517-023-02865-4. [PMID: 37338738 DOI: 10.1007/s11517-023-02865-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023]
Abstract
Current research in the field of neuroscience primarily focuses on the analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) activities associated with movement within the central nervous system. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating the impact of prolonged individual strength training on the resting state of the brain. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the correlation between upper body grip strength and resting-state EEG networks. In this study, coherence analysis was utilized to construct resting-state EEG networks using the available datasets. A multiple linear regression model was established to examine the correlation between the brain network properties of individuals and their maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) during gripping tasks. The model was used to predict individual MVC. The beta and gamma frequency bands showed significant correlation between RSN connectivity and MVC (p < 0.05), particularly in left hemisphere frontoparietal and fronto-occipital connectivity. RSN properties were consistently correlated with MVC in both bands, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.60 (p < 0.01). Additionally, predicted MVC positively correlated with actual MVC, with a coefficient of 0.70 and root mean square error of 5.67 (p < 0.01). The results show that the resting-state EEG network is closely related to upper body grip strength, which can indirectly reflect an individual's muscle strength through the resting brain network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiabing Zhang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
| | - Bin Lu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
| | - Chunli Chen
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
| | - Lei Yang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
| | - Wanjun Chen
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
| | - Dezhong Yao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
- Research Unit of NeuroInformation, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, 611731, China
- School of Electrical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China
| | - Jingming Hou
- Department of Rehabilitation, Southwest Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China
| | - Jing Qiu
- Robotics Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
| | - Fali Li
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China.
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
- Research Unit of NeuroInformation, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, 611731, China.
| | - Peng Xu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan, China.
- School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
- Research Unit of NeuroInformation, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, 611731, China.
- Radiation Oncology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, 610041, China.
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10
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Kraus F, Tune S, Obleser J, Herrmann B. Neural α Oscillations and Pupil Size Differentially Index Cognitive Demand under Competing Audiovisual Task Conditions. J Neurosci 2023; 43:4352-4364. [PMID: 37160365 PMCID: PMC10255021 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2181-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2022] [Revised: 04/12/2023] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Cognitive demand is thought to modulate two often used, but rarely combined, measures: pupil size and neural α (8-12 Hz) oscillatory power. However, it is unclear whether these two measures capture cognitive demand in a similar way under complex audiovisual-task conditions. Here we recorded pupil size and neural α power (using electroencephalography), while human participants of both sexes concurrently performed a visual multiple object-tracking task and an auditory gap detection task. Difficulties of the two tasks were manipulated independent of each other. Participants' performance decreased in accuracy and speed with increasing cognitive demand. Pupil size increased with increasing difficulty for both the auditory and the visual task. In contrast, α power showed diverging neural dynamics: parietal α power decreased with increasing difficulty in the visual task, but not with increasing difficulty in the auditory task. Furthermore, independent of task difficulty, within-participant trial-by-trial fluctuations in pupil size were negatively correlated with α power. Difficulty-induced changes in pupil size and α power, however, did not correlate, which is consistent with their different cognitive-demand sensitivities. Overall, the current study demonstrates that the dynamics of the neurophysiological indices of cognitive demand and associated effort are multifaceted and potentially modality-dependent under complex audiovisual-task conditions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Pupil size and oscillatory α power are associated with cognitive demand and effort, but their relative sensitivity under complex audiovisual-task conditions is unclear, as is the extent to which they share underlying mechanisms. Using an audiovisual dual-task paradigm, we show that pupil size increases with increasing cognitive demands for both audition and vision. In contrast, changes in oscillatory α power depend on the respective task demands: parietal α power decreases with visual demand but not with auditory task demand. Hence, pupil size and α power show different sensitivity to cognitive demands, perhaps suggesting partly different underlying neural mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frauke Kraus
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Sarah Tune
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada
- University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
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11
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Herrmann B, Maess B, Henry MJ, Obleser J, Johnsrude IS. Neural signatures of task-related fluctuations in auditory attention and age-related changes. Neuroimage 2023; 268:119883. [PMID: 36657693 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Revised: 01/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Listening in everyday life requires attention to be deployed dynamically - when listening is expected to be difficult and when relevant information is expected to occur - to conserve mental resources. Conserving mental resources may be particularly important for older adults who often experience difficulties understanding speech. In the current study, we use electro- and magnetoencephalography to investigate the neural and behavioral mechanics of attention regulation during listening and the effects that aging has on these. We first show in younger adults (17-31 years) that neural alpha oscillatory activity indicates when in time attention is deployed (Experiment 1) and that deployment depends on listening difficulty (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 investigated age-related changes in auditory attention regulation. Middle-aged and older adults (54-72 years) show successful attention regulation but appear to utilize timing information differently compared to younger adults (20-33 years). We show a notable age-group dissociation in recruited brain regions. In younger adults, superior parietal cortex underlies alpha power during attention regulation, whereas, in middle-aged and older adults, alpha power emerges from more ventro-lateral areas (posterior temporal cortex). This difference in the sources of alpha activity between age groups only occurred during task performance and was absent during rest (Experiment S1). In sum, our study suggests that middle-aged and older adults employ different neural control strategies compared to younger adults to regulate attention in time under listening challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Herrmann
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Burkhard Maess
- Brain Networks Group, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Molly J Henry
- Max Planck Research Group "Neural and Environmental Rhythms", Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada; School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
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12
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Lai J, Alain C, Bidelman GM. Cortical-brainstem interplay during speech perception in older adults with and without hearing loss. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1075368. [PMID: 36816123 PMCID: PMC9932544 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1075368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/17/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Real time modulation of brainstem frequency-following responses (FFRs) by online changes in cortical arousal state via the corticofugal (top-down) pathway has been demonstrated previously in young adults and is more prominent in the presence of background noise. FFRs during high cortical arousal states also have a stronger relationship with speech perception. Aging is associated with increased auditory brain responses, which might reflect degraded inhibitory processing within the peripheral and ascending pathways, or changes in attentional control regulation via descending auditory pathways. Here, we tested the hypothesis that online corticofugal interplay is impacted by age-related hearing loss. Methods We measured EEG in older adults with normal-hearing (NH) and mild to moderate hearing-loss (HL) while they performed speech identification tasks in different noise backgrounds. We measured α power to index online cortical arousal states during task engagement. Subsequently, we split brainstem speech-FFRs, on a trial-by-trial basis, according to fluctuations in concomitant cortical α power into low or high α FFRs to index cortical-brainstem modulation. Results We found cortical α power was smaller in the HL than the NH group. In NH listeners, α-FFRs modulation for clear speech (i.e., without noise) also resembled that previously observed in younger adults for speech in noise. Cortical-brainstem modulation was further diminished in HL older adults in the clear condition and by noise in NH older adults. Machine learning classification showed low α FFR frequency spectra yielded higher accuracy for classifying listeners' perceptual performance in both NH and HL participants. Moreover, low α FFRs decreased with increased hearing thresholds at 0.5-2 kHz for clear speech but noise generally reduced low α FFRs in the HL group. Discussion Collectively, our study reveals cortical arousal state actively shapes brainstem speech representations and provides a potential new mechanism for older listeners' difficulties perceiving speech in cocktail party-like listening situations in the form of a miss-coordination between cortical and subcortical levels of auditory processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesyin Lai
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States
| | - Claude Alain
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, ON, Canada,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Gavin M. Bidelman
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States,Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States,*Correspondence: Gavin M. Bidelman,
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13
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Herrmann B, Maess B, Johnsrude IS. Sustained responses and neural synchronization to amplitude and frequency modulation in sound change with age. Hear Res 2023; 428:108677. [PMID: 36580732 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Revised: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Perception of speech requires sensitivity to features, such as amplitude and frequency modulations, that are often temporally regular. Previous work suggests age-related changes in neural responses to temporally regular features, but little work has focused on age differences for different types of modulations. We recorded magnetoencephalography in younger (21-33 years) and older adults (53-73 years) to investigate age differences in neural responses to slow (2-6 Hz sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal) modulations in amplitude, frequency, or combined amplitude and frequency. Audiometric pure-tone average thresholds were elevated in older compared to younger adults, indicating subclinical hearing impairment in the recruited older-adult sample. Neural responses to sound onset (independent of temporal modulations) were increased in magnitude in older compared to younger adults, suggesting hyperresponsivity and a loss of inhibition in the aged auditory system. Analyses of neural activity to modulations revealed greater neural synchronization with amplitude, frequency, and combined amplitude-frequency modulations for older compared to younger adults. This potentiated response generalized across different degrees of temporal regularity (sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal), although neural synchronization was generally lower for non-sinusoidal modulation. Despite greater synchronization, sustained neural activity was reduced in older compared to younger adults for sounds modulated both sinusoidally and non-sinusoidally in frequency. Our results suggest age differences in the sensitivity of the auditory system to features present in speech and other natural sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, North York, ON M6A 2E1, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada; Department of Psychology & Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Burkhard Maess
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Brain Networks Unit, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology & Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada; School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
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14
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Tichko P, Page N, Kim JC, Large EW, Loui P. Neural Entrainment to Musical Pulse in Naturalistic Music Is Preserved in Aging: Implications for Music-Based Interventions. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12121676. [PMID: 36552136 PMCID: PMC9775503 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12121676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Revised: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Neural entrainment to musical rhythm is thought to underlie the perception and production of music. In aging populations, the strength of neural entrainment to rhythm has been found to be attenuated, particularly during attentive listening to auditory streams. However, previous studies on neural entrainment to rhythm and aging have often employed artificial auditory rhythms or limited pieces of recorded, naturalistic music, failing to account for the diversity of rhythmic structures found in natural music. As part of larger project assessing a novel music-based intervention for healthy aging, we investigated neural entrainment to musical rhythms in the electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants listened to self-selected musical recordings across a sample of younger and older adults. We specifically measured neural entrainment to the level of musical pulse-quantified here as the phase-locking value (PLV)-after normalizing the PLVs to each musical recording's detected pulse frequency. As predicted, we observed strong neural phase-locking to musical pulse, and to the sub-harmonic and harmonic levels of musical meter. Overall, PLVs were not significantly different between older and younger adults. This preserved neural entrainment to musical pulse and rhythm could support the design of music-based interventions that aim to modulate endogenous brain activity via self-selected music for healthy cognitive aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parker Tichko
- Department of Music, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Nicole Page
- Department of Music, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Ji Chul Kim
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | - Edward W. Large
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | - Psyche Loui
- Department of Music, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Correspondence:
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15
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Suess N, Hauswald A, Reisinger P, Rösch S, Keitel A, Weisz N. Cortical tracking of formant modulations derived from silently presented lip movements and its decline with age. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4818-4833. [PMID: 35062025 PMCID: PMC9627034 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The integration of visual and auditory cues is crucial for successful processing of speech, especially under adverse conditions. Recent reports have shown that when participants watch muted videos of speakers, the phonological information about the acoustic speech envelope, which is associated with but independent from the speakers' lip movements, is tracked by the visual cortex. However, the speech signal also carries richer acoustic details, for example, about the fundamental frequency and the resonant frequencies, whose visuophonological transformation could aid speech processing. Here, we investigated the neural basis of the visuo-phonological transformation processes of these more fine-grained acoustic details and assessed how they change as a function of age. We recorded whole-head magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data while the participants watched silent normal (i.e., natural) and reversed videos of a speaker and paid attention to their lip movements. We found that the visual cortex is able to track the unheard natural modulations of resonant frequencies (or formants) and the pitch (or fundamental frequency) linked to lip movements. Importantly, only the processing of natural unheard formants decreases significantly with age in the visual and also in the cingulate cortex. This is not the case for the processing of the unheard speech envelope, the fundamental frequency, or the purely visual information carried by lip movements. These results show that unheard spectral fine details (along with the unheard acoustic envelope) are transformed from a mere visual to a phonological representation. Aging affects especially the ability to derive spectral dynamics at formant frequencies. As listening in noisy environments should capitalize on the ability to track spectral fine details, our results provide a novel focus on compensatory processes in such challenging situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Suess
- Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg 5020, Austria
| | - Anne Hauswald
- Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg 5020, Austria
| | - Patrick Reisinger
- Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg 5020, Austria
| | - Sebastian Rösch
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, University Hospital Salzburg, Salzburg 5020, Austria
| | - Anne Keitel
- School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK
| | - Nathan Weisz
- Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg 5020, Austria
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg 5020, Austria
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16
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Soleimani B, Das P, Dushyanthi Karunathilake IM, Kuchinsky SE, Simon JZ, Babadi B. NLGC: Network localized Granger causality with application to MEG directional functional connectivity analysis. Neuroimage 2022; 260:119496. [PMID: 35870697 PMCID: PMC9435442 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying the directed connectivity that underlie networked activity between different cortical areas is critical for understanding the neural mechanisms behind sensory processing. Granger causality (GC) is widely used for this purpose in functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis, but there the temporal resolution is low, making it difficult to capture the millisecond-scale interactions underlying sensory processing. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) has millisecond resolution, but only provides low-dimensional sensor-level linear mixtures of neural sources, which makes GC inference challenging. Conventional methods proceed in two stages: First, cortical sources are estimated from MEG using a source localization technique, followed by GC inference among the estimated sources. However, the spatiotemporal biases in estimating sources propagate into the subsequent GC analysis stage, may result in both false alarms and missing true GC links. Here, we introduce the Network Localized Granger Causality (NLGC) inference paradigm, which models the source dynamics as latent sparse multivariate autoregressive processes and estimates their parameters directly from the MEG measurements, integrated with source localization, and employs the resulting parameter estimates to produce a precise statistical characterization of the detected GC links. We offer several theoretical and algorithmic innovations within NLGC and further examine its utility via comprehensive simulations and application to MEG data from an auditory task involving tone processing from both younger and older participants. Our simulation studies reveal that NLGC is markedly robust with respect to model mismatch, network size, and low signal-to-noise ratio, whereas the conventional two-stage methods result in high false alarms and mis-detections. We also demonstrate the advantages of NLGC in revealing the cortical network-level characterization of neural activity during tone processing and resting state by delineating task- and age-related connectivity changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Behrad Soleimani
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
| | - Proloy Das
- Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - I M Dushyanthi Karunathilake
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
| | - Stefanie E Kuchinsky
- Audiology and Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Jonathan Z Simon
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Department of Biology, University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA.
| | - Behtash Babadi
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
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17
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Qiao J, Wang Y, Wang S. Natural frequencies of neural activities and cognitions may serve as precise targets of rhythmic interventions to the aging brain. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:988193. [PMID: 36172484 PMCID: PMC9510897 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.988193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Rhythmic neural activities are critical to the efficiency of regulatory procedures in brain functions. However, brain functions usually decline in aging as accompanied by frequency shift and temporal dedifferentiation of neural activities. Considering the strong oscillations and long-lasting after-effects induced by rhythmic brain stimulations, we suggest that non-invasive rhythmic brain stimulation technique may help restore the natural frequencies of neural activities in aging to that in younger and healthy brains. Although with tremendous work to do, this technique offers great opportunities for the restoration of normal brain functions in aging, or even in those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingwen Qiao
- Academy for Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yifeng Wang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Shouyan Wang
- Academy for Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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18
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Sauvé SA, Bolt ELW, Nozaradan S, Zendel BR. Aging effects on neural processing of rhythm and meter. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:848608. [PMID: 36118692 PMCID: PMC9475293 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.848608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When listening to musical rhythm, humans can perceive and move to beat-like metrical pulses. Recently, it has been hypothesized that meter perception is related to brain activity responding to the acoustic fluctuation of the rhythmic input, with selective enhancement of the brain response elicited at meter-related frequencies. In the current study, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while younger (<35) and older (>60) adults listened to rhythmic patterns presented at two different tempi while intermittently performing a tapping task. Despite significant hearing loss compared to younger adults, older adults showed preserved brain activity to the rhythms. However, age effects were observed in the distribution of amplitude across frequencies. Specifically, in contrast with younger adults, older adults showed relatively larger amplitude at the frequency corresponding to the rate of individual events making up the rhythms as compared to lower meter-related frequencies. This difference is compatible with larger N1-P2 potentials as generally observed in older adults in response to acoustic onsets, irrespective of meter perception. These larger low-level responses to sounds have been linked to processes by which age-related hearing loss would be compensated by cortical sensory mechanisms. Importantly, this low-level effect would be associated here with relatively reduced neural activity at lower frequencies corresponding to higher-level metrical grouping of the acoustic events, as compared to younger adults.
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19
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Abnormal EEG Signal Energy in the Elderly: A Wavelet Analysis of Event-related Potentials During a Stroop Task. J Neurosci Methods 2022; 376:109608. [PMID: 35487316 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2022.109608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2021] [Revised: 01/17/2022] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Previous work showed that elderly with excess in theta activity in their resting state electroencephalogram (EEG) are at higher risk of cognitive decline than those with a normal EEG. By using event-related potentials (ERP) during a counting Stroop task, our prior work showed that elderly with theta excess have a large P300 component compared with normal EEG group. This increased activity could be related to a higher EEG signal energy used during this task. NEW METHOD By wavelet analysis applied to ERP obtained during a counting Stroop task we quantified the energy in the different frequency bands of a group of elderly with altered EEG. RESULTS In theta and alpha bands, the total energy was higher in elderly subjects with theta excess, specifically in the stimulus categorization window (258-516 ms). Both groups solved the task with similar efficiency. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS The traditional ERP analysis in elderly compares voltage among conditions and groups for a given time windows, while the frequency composition is not usually examined. We complemented our previous ERP analysis using a wavelet methodology. Furthermore, we showed the advantages of wavelet analysis over Short Time Fourier Transform when exploring EEG signal during this task. CONCLUSIONS The higher EEG signal energy in ERP might reflect undergoing neurobiological mechanisms that allow the elderly with theta excess to cope with the cognitive task with similar behavioral results as the normal EEG group. This increased energy could promote a metabolic and cellular dysregulation causing a greater decline in cognitive function.
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20
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Corcoran AW, Perera R, Koroma M, Kouider S, Hohwy J, Andrillon T. Expectations boost the reconstruction of auditory features from electrophysiological responses to noisy speech. Cereb Cortex 2022; 33:691-708. [PMID: 35253871 PMCID: PMC9890472 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/12/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Online speech processing imposes significant computational demands on the listening brain, the underlying mechanisms of which remain poorly understood. Here, we exploit the perceptual "pop-out" phenomenon (i.e. the dramatic improvement of speech intelligibility after receiving information about speech content) to investigate the neurophysiological effects of prior expectations on degraded speech comprehension. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and pupillometry from 21 adults while they rated the clarity of noise-vocoded and sine-wave synthesized sentences. Pop-out was reliably elicited following visual presentation of the corresponding written sentence, but not following incongruent or neutral text. Pop-out was associated with improved reconstruction of the acoustic stimulus envelope from low-frequency EEG activity, implying that improvements in perceptual clarity were mediated via top-down signals that enhanced the quality of cortical speech representations. Spectral analysis further revealed that pop-out was accompanied by a reduction in theta-band power, consistent with predictive coding accounts of acoustic filling-in and incremental sentence processing. Moreover, delta-band power, alpha-band power, and pupil diameter were all increased following the provision of any written sentence information, irrespective of content. Together, these findings reveal distinctive profiles of neurophysiological activity that differentiate the content-specific processes associated with degraded speech comprehension from the context-specific processes invoked under adverse listening conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew W Corcoran
- Corresponding author: Room E672, 20 Chancellors Walk, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
| | - Ricardo Perera
- Cognition & Philosophy Laboratory, School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800 Australia
| | - Matthieu Koroma
- Brain and Consciousness Group (ENS, EHESS, CNRS), Département d’Études Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure-PSL Research University, Paris 75005, France
| | - Sid Kouider
- Brain and Consciousness Group (ENS, EHESS, CNRS), Département d’Études Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure-PSL Research University, Paris 75005, France
| | - Jakob Hohwy
- Cognition & Philosophy Laboratory, School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800 Australia,Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800 Australia
| | - Thomas Andrillon
- Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800 Australia,Paris Brain Institute, Sorbonne Université, Inserm-CNRS, Paris 75013, France
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21
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Bonetti L, Brattico E, Carlomagno F, Donati G, Cabral J, Haumann NT, Deco G, Vuust P, Kringelbach ML. Rapid encoding of musical tones discovered in whole-brain connectivity. Neuroimage 2021; 245:118735. [PMID: 34813972 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118735] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Revised: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 11/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Information encoding has received a wide neuroscientific attention, but the underlying rapid spatiotemporal brain dynamics remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the rapid brain mechanisms for encoding of sounds forming a complex temporal sequence. Specifically, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record the brain activity of 68 participants while they listened to a highly structured musical prelude. Functional connectivity analyses performed using phase synchronisation and graph theoretical measures showed a large network of brain areas recruited during encoding of sounds, comprising primary and secondary auditory cortices, frontal operculum, insula, hippocampus and basal ganglia. Moreover, our results highlighted the rapid transition of brain activity from primary auditory cortex to higher order association areas including insula and superior temporal pole within a whole-brain network, occurring during the first 220 ms of the encoding process. Further, we discovered that individual differences along cognitive abilities and musicianship modulated the degree centrality of the brain areas implicated in the encoding process. Indeed, participants with higher musical expertise presented a stronger centrality of superior temporal gyrus and insula, while individuals with high working memory abilities showed a stronger centrality of frontal operculum. In conclusion, our study revealed the rapid unfolding of brain network dynamics responsible for the encoding of sounds and their relationship with individual differences, showing a complex picture which extends beyond the well-known involvement of auditory areas. Indeed, our results expanded our understanding of the general mechanisms underlying auditory pattern encoding in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Bonetti
- Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy.
| | - E Brattico
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
| | - F Carlomagno
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - G Donati
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy; Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - J Cabral
- Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
| | - N T Haumann
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - G Deco
- Institució Catalana de la Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona, 08010, Spain; Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience Group, Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - P Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - M L Kringelbach
- Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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22
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Patro C, Kreft HA, Wojtczak M. The search for correlates of age-related cochlear synaptopathy: Measures of temporal envelope processing and spatial release from speech-on-speech masking. Hear Res 2021; 409:108333. [PMID: 34425347 PMCID: PMC8424701 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2021.108333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Revised: 07/17/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Older adults often experience difficulties understanding speech in adverse listening conditions. It has been suggested that for listeners with normal and near-normal audiograms, these difficulties may, at least in part, arise from age-related cochlear synaptopathy. The aim of this study was to assess if performance on auditory tasks relying on temporal envelope processing reveal age-related deficits consistent with those expected from cochlear synaptopathy. Listeners aged 20 to 66 years were tested using a series of psychophysical, electrophysiological, and speech-perception measures using stimulus configurations that promote coding by medium- and low-spontaneous-rate auditory-nerve fibers. Cognitive measures of executive function were obtained to control for age-related cognitive decline. Results from the different tests were not significantly correlated with each other despite a presumed reliance on common mechanisms involved in temporal envelope processing. Only gap-detection thresholds for a tone in noise and spatial release from speech-on-speech masking were significantly correlated with age. Increasing age was related to impaired cognitive executive function. Multivariate regression analyses showed that individual differences in hearing sensitivity, envelope-based measures, and scores from nonauditory cognitive tests did not significantly contribute to the variability in spatial release from speech-on-speech masking for small target/masker spatial separation, while age was a significant contributor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chhayakanta Patro
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, N640 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
| | - Heather A Kreft
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, N640 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Magdalena Wojtczak
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, N640 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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23
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Bauer AKR, van Ede F, Quinn AJ, Nobre AC. Rhythmic Modulation of Visual Perception by Continuous Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7065-7075. [PMID: 34261698 PMCID: PMC8372019 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2980-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
At any given moment our sensory systems receive multiple, often rhythmic, inputs from the environment. Processing of temporally structured events in one sensory modality can guide both behavioral and neural processing of events in other sensory modalities, but whether this occurs remains unclear. Here, we used human electroencephalography (EEG) to test the cross-modal influences of a continuous auditory frequency-modulated (FM) sound on visual perception and visual cortical activity. We report systematic fluctuations in perceptual discrimination of brief visual stimuli in line with the phase of the FM-sound. We further show that this rhythmic modulation in visual perception is related to an accompanying rhythmic modulation of neural activity recorded over visual areas. Importantly, in our task, perceptual and neural visual modulations occurred without any abrupt and salient onsets in the energy of the auditory stimulation and without any rhythmic structure in the visual stimulus. As such, the results provide a critical validation for the existence and functional role of cross-modal entrainment and demonstrates its utility for organizing the perception of multisensory stimulation in the natural environment.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our sensory environment is filled with rhythmic structures that are often multi-sensory in nature. Here, we show that the alignment of neural activity to the phase of an auditory frequency-modulated (FM) sound has cross-modal consequences for vision: yielding systematic fluctuations in perceptual discrimination of brief visual stimuli that are mediated by accompanying rhythmic modulation of neural activity recorded over visual areas. These cross-modal effects on visual neural activity and perception occurred without any abrupt and salient onsets in the energy of the auditory stimulation and without any rhythmic structure in the visual stimulus. The current work shows that continuous auditory fluctuations in the natural environment can provide a pacing signal for neural activity and perception across the senses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Katharina R Bauer
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
| | - Freek van Ede
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081BT, The Netherlands
| | - Andrew J Quinn
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
| | - Anna C Nobre
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom
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24
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Tune S, Alavash M, Fiedler L, Obleser J. Neural attentional-filter mechanisms of listening success in middle-aged and older individuals. Nat Commun 2021; 12:4533. [PMID: 34312388 PMCID: PMC8313676 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24771-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Successful listening crucially depends on intact attentional filters that separate relevant from irrelevant information. Research into their neurobiological implementation has focused on two potential auditory filter strategies: the lateralization of alpha power and selective neural speech tracking. However, the functional interplay of the two neural filter strategies and their potency to index listening success in an ageing population remains unclear. Using electroencephalography and a dual-talker task in a representative sample of listeners (N = 155; age=39-80 years), we here demonstrate an often-missed link from single-trial behavioural outcomes back to trial-by-trial changes in neural attentional filtering. First, we observe preserved attentional-cue-driven modulation of both neural filters across chronological age and hearing levels. Second, neural filter states vary independently of one another, demonstrating complementary neurobiological solutions of spatial selective attention. Stronger neural speech tracking but not alpha lateralization boosts trial-to-trial behavioural performance. Our results highlight the translational potential of neural speech tracking as an individualized neural marker of adaptive listening behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Tune
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
- Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
| | - Mohsen Alavash
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Lorenz Fiedler
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Eriksholm Research Centre, Snekkersten, Denmark
| | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
- Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
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25
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About time: Ageing influences neural markers of temporal predictability. Biol Psychol 2021; 163:108135. [PMID: 34126165 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2020] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 06/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Timing abilities help organizing the temporal structure of events but are known to change systematically with age. Yet, how the neuronal signature of temporal predictability changes across the age span remains unclear. Younger (n = 21; 23.1 years) and older adults (n = 21; 68.5 years) performed an auditory oddball task, consisting of isochronous and random sound sequences. Results confirm an altered P50 response in the older compared to younger participants. P50 amplitudes differed between the isochronous and random temporal structures in younger, and for P200 in the older group. These results suggest less efficient sensory gating in older adults in both isochronous and random auditory sequences. N100 amplitudes were more negative for deviant tones. P300 amplitudes were parietally enhanced in younger, but not in older adults. In younger participants, the P50 results confirm that this component marks temporal predictability, indicating sensitive gating of temporally regular sound sequences.
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26
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Herrmann B, Butler BE. Hearing loss and brain plasticity: the hyperactivity phenomenon. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 226:2019-2039. [PMID: 34100151 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02313-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Many aging adults experience some form of hearing problems that may arise from auditory peripheral damage. However, it has been increasingly acknowledged that hearing loss is not only a dysfunction of the auditory periphery but also results from changes within the entire auditory system, from periphery to cortex. Damage to the auditory periphery is associated with an increase in neural activity at various stages throughout the auditory pathway. Here, we review neurophysiological evidence of hyperactivity, auditory perceptual difficulties that may result from hyperactivity, and outline open conceptual and methodological questions related to the study of hyperactivity. We suggest that hyperactivity alters all aspects of hearing-including spectral, temporal, spatial hearing-and, in turn, impairs speech comprehension when background sound is present. By focusing on the perceptual consequences of hyperactivity and the potential challenges of investigating hyperactivity in humans, we hope to bring animal and human electrophysiologists closer together to better understand hearing problems in older adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Herrmann
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, ON, M6A 2E1, Canada. .,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Blake E Butler
- Department of Psychology & The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.,National Centre for Audiology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
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27
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Irsik VC, Almanaseer A, Johnsrude IS, Herrmann B. Cortical Responses to the Amplitude Envelopes of Sounds Change with Age. J Neurosci 2021; 41:5045-5055. [PMID: 33903222 PMCID: PMC8197634 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2715-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2020] [Revised: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Many older listeners have difficulty understanding speech in noise, when cues to speech-sound identity are less redundant. The amplitude envelope of speech fluctuates dramatically over time, and features such as the rate of amplitude change at onsets (attack) and offsets (decay), signal critical information about the identity of speech sounds. Aging is also thought to be accompanied by increases in cortical excitability, which may differentially alter sensitivity to envelope dynamics. Here, we recorded electroencephalography in younger and older human adults (of both sexes) to investigate how aging affects neural synchronization to 4 Hz amplitude-modulated noises with different envelope shapes (ramped: slow attack and sharp decay; damped: sharp attack and slow decay). We observed that subcortical responses did not differ between age groups, whereas older compared with younger adults exhibited larger cortical responses to sound onsets, consistent with an increase in auditory cortical excitability. Neural activity in older adults synchronized more strongly to rapid-onset, slow-offset (damped) envelopes, was less sinusoidal, and was more peaked. Younger adults demonstrated the opposite pattern, showing stronger synchronization to slow-onset, rapid-offset (ramped) envelopes, as well as a more sinusoidal neural response shape. The current results suggest that age-related changes in the excitability of auditory cortex alter responses to envelope dynamics. This may be part of the reason why older adults experience difficulty understanding speech in noise.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Many middle-aged and older adults report difficulty understanding speech when there is background noise, which can trigger social withdrawal and negative psychosocial health outcomes. The difficulty may be related to age-related changes in how the brain processes temporal sound features. We tested younger and older people on their sensitivity to different envelope shapes, using EEG. Our results demonstrate that aging is associated with heightened sensitivity to sounds with a sharp attack and gradual decay, and sharper neural responses that deviate from the sinusoidal features of the stimulus, perhaps reflecting increased excitability in the aged auditory cortex. Altered responses to temporal sound features may be part of the reason why older adults often experience difficulty understanding speech in social situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa C Irsik
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Ala Almanaseer
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
- School of Communication and Speech Disorders, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Department of Psychology & the Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
- Rotman Research Institute Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
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28
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Schneider D, Herbst SK, Klatt LI, Wöstmann M. Target enhancement or distractor suppression? Functionally distinct alpha oscillations form the basis of attention. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 55:3256-3265. [PMID: 33973310 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Recent advances in attention research have been propelled by the debate on target enhancement versus distractor suppression. A predominant neural correlate of attention is the modulation of alpha oscillatory power (~10 Hz), which signifies shifts of attention in time, space and between sensory modalities. However, the underspecified functional role of alpha oscillations limits the progress of tracking down the neurocognitive basis of attention. In this short opinion article, we review and critically examine a synthesis of three conceptual and methodological aspects that are indispensable for a mechanistic understanding of the role of alpha oscillations for attention. (a) Precise mapping of the anatomical source and the temporal response profile of neural signals reveals distinct alpha oscillatory processes that implement facilitatory versus suppressive components of attention. (b) A testable framework enables unanimous association of alpha modulation with either target enhancement or different forms of distractor suppression (active vs. automatic). (c) Linking anatomically specified alpha oscillations to behavior reveals the causal nature of alpha oscillations for attention. The three reviewed aspects substantially enrich study design, data analysis and interpretation of results to achieve the goal of understanding how anatomically specified and functionally relevant neural oscillations contribute to the implementation of facilitatory versus suppressive components of attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Schneider
- Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany
| | - Sophie K Herbst
- NeuroSpin, CEA, DRF/Joliot, INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Laura-Isabelle Klatt
- Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany
| | - Malte Wöstmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
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29
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Liu L, Ding X, Li H, Zhou Q, Gao D, Lu C, Ding G. Reduced listener-speaker neural coupling underlies speech understanding difficulty in older adults. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 226:1571-1584. [PMID: 33839942 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02271-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
An increasing number of studies have highlighted the importance of listener-speaker neural coupling in successful verbal communication. Whether the brain-to-brain coupling changes with healthy aging and the possible role of this change in the speech comprehension of older adults remain unexplored. In this study, we scanned with fMRI a young and an older speaker telling real-life stories and then played the audio recordings to a group of young (N = 28, aged 19-27 year) and a group of older adults during scanning (N = 27, aged 53-75 year), respectively. The older listeners understood the speech less well than did the young listeners, and the age of the older listeners was negatively correlated with their level of speech understanding. Compared to the young listener-speaker dyads, the older dyads exhibited reduced neural couplings in both linguistic and extra-linguistic areas. Moreover, within the older group, the listener's age was negatively correlated with the overall strength of interbrain coupling, which in turn was associated with reduced speech understanding. These results reveal the deficits of older adults in achieving neural alignment with other brains, which may underlie the age-related decline in speech understanding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lanfang Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China
| | - Xiaowei Ding
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China
| | - Hehui Li
- Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, PR China
| | - Qi Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University & IDG, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Dingguo Gao
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China
| | - Chunming Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University & IDG, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Guosheng Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University & IDG, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 100875, China.
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30
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Jiang J, Benhamou E, Waters S, Johnson JCS, Volkmer A, Weil RS, Marshall CR, Warren JD, Hardy CJD. Processing of Degraded Speech in Brain Disorders. Brain Sci 2021; 11:394. [PMID: 33804653 PMCID: PMC8003678 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11030394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 03/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The speech we hear every day is typically "degraded" by competing sounds and the idiosyncratic vocal characteristics of individual speakers. While the comprehension of "degraded" speech is normally automatic, it depends on dynamic and adaptive processing across distributed neural networks. This presents the brain with an immense computational challenge, making degraded speech processing vulnerable to a range of brain disorders. Therefore, it is likely to be a sensitive marker of neural circuit dysfunction and an index of retained neural plasticity. Considering experimental methods for studying degraded speech and factors that affect its processing in healthy individuals, we review the evidence for altered degraded speech processing in major neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury and stroke. We develop a predictive coding framework for understanding deficits of degraded speech processing in these disorders, focussing on the "language-led dementias"-the primary progressive aphasias. We conclude by considering prospects for using degraded speech as a probe of language network pathophysiology, a diagnostic tool and a target for therapeutic intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Jiang
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
| | - Elia Benhamou
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
| | - Sheena Waters
- Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, UK;
| | - Jeremy C. S. Johnson
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
| | - Anna Volkmer
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK;
| | - Rimona S. Weil
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
| | - Charles R. Marshall
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
- Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, UK;
| | - Jason D. Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
| | - Chris J. D. Hardy
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK; (J.J.); (E.B.); (J.C.S.J.); (R.S.W.); (C.R.M.); (J.D.W.)
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31
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Johnson JCS, Marshall CR, Weil RS, Bamiou DE, Hardy CJD, Warren JD. Hearing and dementia: from ears to brain. Brain 2021; 144:391-401. [PMID: 33351095 PMCID: PMC7940169 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The association between hearing impairment and dementia has emerged as a major public health challenge, with significant opportunities for earlier diagnosis, treatment and prevention. However, the nature of this association has not been defined. We hear with our brains, particularly within the complex soundscapes of everyday life: neurodegenerative pathologies target the auditory brain, and are therefore predicted to damage hearing function early and profoundly. Here we present evidence for this proposition, based on structural and functional features of auditory brain organization that confer vulnerability to neurodegeneration, the extensive, reciprocal interplay between 'peripheral' and 'central' hearing dysfunction, and recently characterized auditory signatures of canonical neurodegenerative dementias (Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease and frontotemporal dementia). Moving beyond any simple dichotomy of ear and brain, we argue for a reappraisal of the role of auditory cognitive dysfunction and the critical coupling of brain to peripheral organs of hearing in the dementias. We call for a clinical assessment of real-world hearing in these diseases that moves beyond pure tone perception to the development of novel auditory 'cognitive stress tests' and proximity markers for the early diagnosis of dementia and management strategies that harness retained auditory plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy C S Johnson
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Charles R Marshall
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Rimona S Weil
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Movement Disorders Centre, Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Doris-Eva Bamiou
- UCL Ear Institute and UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, National Institute for Health Research, University College London, London, UK
| | - Chris J D Hardy
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Jason D Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
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32
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Erkens J, Schulte M, Vormann M, Wilsch A, Herrmann CS. Hearing Impaired Participants Improve More Under Envelope-Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation When Signal to Noise Ratio Is High. Neurosci Insights 2021; 16:2633105520988854. [PMID: 33709079 PMCID: PMC7907945 DOI: 10.1177/2633105520988854] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 12/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
An issue commonly expressed by hearing aid users is a difficulty to understand speech in complex hearing scenarios, that is, when speech is presented together with background noise or in situations with multiple speakers. Conventional hearing aids are already designed with these issues in mind, using beamforming to only enhance sound from a specific direction, but these are limited in solving these issues as they can only modulate incoming sound at the cochlear level. However, evidence exists that age-related hearing loss might partially be caused later in the hearing processes due to brain processes slowing down and becoming less efficient. In this study, we tested whether it would be possible to improve the hearing process at the cortical level by improving neural tracking of speech. The speech envelopes of target sentences were transformed into an electrical signal and stimulated onto elderly participants' cortices using transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). We compared 2 different signal to noise ratios (SNRs) with 5 different delays between sound presentation and stimulation ranging from 50 ms to 150 ms, and the differences in effects between elderly normal hearing and elderly hearing impaired participants. When the task was performed at a high SNR, hearing impaired participants appeared to gain more from envelope-tACS compared to when the task was performed at a lower SNR. This was not the case for normal hearing participants. Furthermore, a post-hoc analysis of the different time-lags suggest that elderly were significantly better at a stimulation time-lag of 150 ms when the task was presented at a high SNR. In this paper, we outline why these effects are worth exploring further, and what they tell us about the optimal tACS time-lag.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jules Erkens
- Department of Psychology, Cluster of
Excellence “Hearing4All,” European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University,
Oldenburg, Germany
| | | | | | - Anna Wilsch
- Department of Psychology, Cluster of
Excellence “Hearing4All,” European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University,
Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Christoph S Herrmann
- Department of Psychology, Cluster of
Excellence “Hearing4All,” European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University,
Oldenburg, Germany
- Research Center Neurosensory Science,
Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany
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33
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Park H, Nannt J, Kayser C. Sensory- and memory-related drivers for altered ventriloquism effects and aftereffects in older adults. Cortex 2021; 135:298-310. [PMID: 33422888 PMCID: PMC7856550 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Revised: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
The manner in which humans exploit multisensory information for subsequent decisions changes with age. Multiple causes for such age-effects are being discussed, including a reduced precision in peripheral sensory representations, changes in cognitive inference about causal relations between sensory cues, and a decline in memory contributing to altered sequential patterns of multisensory behaviour. To dissociate these putative contributions, we investigated how healthy young and older adults integrate audio-visual spatial information within trials (the ventriloquism effect) and between trials (the ventriloquism aftereffect). With both a model-free and (Bayesian) model-based analyses we found that both biases differed between groups. Our results attribute the age-change in the ventriloquism bias to a decline in spatial hearing rather than a change in cognitive processes. This decline in peripheral function, combined with a more prominent influence from preceding responses rather than preceding stimuli in the elderly, can also explain the observed age-effect in the ventriloquism aftereffect. Our results suggest a transition from a sensory-to a behavior-driven influence of past multisensory experience on perceptual decisions with age, due to reduced sensory precision and change in memory capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hame Park
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
| | - Julia Nannt
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Christoph Kayser
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany; Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
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34
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Delta/Theta band EEG activity shapes the rhythmic perceptual sampling of auditory scenes. Sci Rep 2021; 11:2370. [PMID: 33504860 PMCID: PMC7840678 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82008-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies speak in favor of a rhythmic mode of listening, by which the encoding of acoustic information is structured by rhythmic neural processes at the time scale of about 1 to 4 Hz. Indeed, psychophysical data suggest that humans sample acoustic information in extended soundscapes not uniformly, but weigh the evidence at different moments for their perceptual decision at the time scale of about 2 Hz. We here test the critical prediction that such rhythmic perceptual sampling is directly related to the state of ongoing brain activity prior to the stimulus. Human participants judged the direction of frequency sweeps in 1.2 s long soundscapes while their EEG was recorded. We computed the perceptual weights attributed to different epochs within these soundscapes contingent on the phase or power of pre-stimulus EEG activity. This revealed a direct link between 4 Hz EEG phase and power prior to the stimulus and the phase of the rhythmic component of these perceptual weights. Hence, the temporal pattern by which the acoustic information is sampled over time for behavior is directly related to pre-stimulus brain activity in the delta/theta band. These results close a gap in the mechanistic picture linking ongoing delta band activity with their role in shaping the segmentation and perceptual influence of subsequent acoustic information.
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35
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Anderson S, Karawani H. Objective evidence of temporal processing deficits in older adults. Hear Res 2020; 397:108053. [PMID: 32863099 PMCID: PMC7669636 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2019] [Revised: 07/15/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The older listener's ability to understand speech in challenging environments may be affected by impaired temporal processing. This review summarizes objective evidence of degraded temporal processing from studies that have used the auditory brainstem response, auditory steady-state response, the envelope- or frequency-following response, cortical auditory-evoked potentials, and neural tracking of continuous speech. Studies have revealed delayed latencies and reduced amplitudes/phase locking in subcortical responses in older vs. younger listeners, in contrast to enhanced amplitudes of cortical responses in older listeners. Reconstruction accuracy of responses to continuous speech (e.g., cortical envelope tracking) shows over-representation in older listeners. Hearing loss is a factor in many of these studies, even though the listeners would be considered to have clinically normal hearing thresholds. Overall, the ability to draw definitive conclusions regarding these studies is limited by the use of multiple stimulus conditions, small sample sizes, and lack of replication. Nevertheless, these objective measures suggest a need to incorporate new clinical measures to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the listener's speech understanding ability, but more work is needed to determine the most efficacious measure for clinical use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samira Anderson
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States.
| | - Hanin Karawani
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
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36
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Gallego Hiroyasu EM, Yotsumoto Y. Older adults preserve accuracy but not precision in explicit and implicit rhythmic timing. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240863. [PMID: 33075063 PMCID: PMC7571673 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 10/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Aging brings with it several forms of neurophysiological and cognitive deterioration, but whether a decline in temporal processing is part of the aging process is unclear. The current study investigated whether this timing deficit has a cause independent of those of memory and attention using rhythmic stimuli that reduce the demand for these higher cognitive functions. In Study 1, participants took part in two rhythmic timing tasks: explicit and implicit. Participants had to distinguish regular from irregular sequences while processing temporal information explicitly or implicitly. Results showed that while the accuracy in the implicit timing task was preserved, older adults had more noise in their performance in the explicit and implicit tasks. In Study 2, participants took part in a dual-implicit task to explore whether the performance of temporal tasks differed with increasing task difficulty. We found that increasing task difficulty magnifies age-related differences.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yuko Yotsumoto
- Department of Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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37
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Erkens J, Schulte M, Vormann M, Herrmann CS. Lacking Effects of Envelope Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Indicate the Need to Revise Envelope Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Methods. Neurosci Insights 2020; 15:2633105520936623. [PMID: 32685924 PMCID: PMC7343360 DOI: 10.1177/2633105520936623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2020] [Accepted: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In recent years, several studies have reported beneficial effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) in experiments regarding sound and speech perception. A new development in this field is envelope-tACS: The goal of this method is to improve cortical entrainment to the speech signal by stimulating with a waveform based on the speech envelope. One challenge of this stimulation method is timing; the electrical stimulation needs to be phase-aligned with the naturally occurring cortical entrainment to the auditory stimuli. Due to individual differences in anatomy and processing speed, the optimal time-lag between presentation of sound and applying envelope-tACS varies between participants. To better investigate the effects of envelope-tACS, we performed a speech comprehension task with a larger amount of time-lags than previous experiments, as well as an equal amount of sham conditions. No significant difference between optimal stimulation time-lag condition and best sham condition was found. Further investigation of the data revealed a significant difference between the positive and negative half-cycles of the stimulation conditions but not for sham. However, we also found a significant learning effect over the course of the experiment which was of comparable size to the effects of envelope-tACS found in previous auditory tACS studies. In this article, we discuss possible explanations for why our findings did not match up with those of previous studies and the issues that come with researching and developing envelope-tACS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jules Erkens
- Experimental Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence 'Hearing4All', European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | | | | | - Christoph S Herrmann
- Experimental Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence 'Hearing4All', European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.,Research Center Neurosensory Science, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
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38
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Erb J, Schmitt LM, Obleser J. Temporal selectivity declines in the aging human auditory cortex. eLife 2020; 9:55300. [PMID: 32618270 PMCID: PMC7410487 DOI: 10.7554/elife.55300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 07/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Current models successfully describe the auditory cortical response to natural sounds with a set of spectro-temporal features. However, these models have hardly been linked to the ill-understood neurobiological changes that occur in the aging auditory cortex. Modelling the hemodynamic response to a rich natural sound mixture in N = 64 listeners of varying age, we here show that in older listeners’ auditory cortex, the key feature of temporal rate is represented with a markedly broader tuning. This loss of temporal selectivity is most prominent in primary auditory cortex and planum temporale, with no such changes in adjacent auditory or other brain areas. Amongst older listeners, we observe a direct relationship between chronological age and temporal-rate tuning, unconfounded by auditory acuity or model goodness of fit. In line with senescent neural dedifferentiation more generally, our results highlight decreased selectivity to temporal information as a hallmark of the aging auditory cortex. It can often be difficult for an older person to understand what someone is saying, particularly in noisy environments. Exactly how and why this age-related change occurs is not clear, but it is thought that older individuals may become less able to tune in to certain features of sound. Newer tools are making it easier to study age-related changes in hearing in the brain. For example, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can allow scientists to ‘see’ and measure how certain parts of the brain react to different features of sound. Using fMRI data, researchers can compare how younger and older people process speech. They can also track how speech processing in the brain changes with age. Now, Erb et al. show that older individuals have a harder time tuning into the rhythm of speech. In the experiments, 64 people between the ages of 18 to 78 were asked to listen to speech in a noisy setting while they underwent fMRI. The researchers then tested a computer model using the data. In the older individuals, the brain’s tuning to the timing or rhythm of speech was broader, while the younger participants were more able to finely tune into this feature of sound. The older a person was the less able their brain was to distinguish rhythms in speech, likely making it harder to understand what had been said. This hearing change likely occurs because brain cells become less specialised overtime, which can contribute to many kinds of age-related cognitive decline. This new information about why understanding speech becomes more difficult with age may help scientists develop better hearing aids that are individualised to a person’s specific needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Erb
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | | | - Jonas Obleser
- Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
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39
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Bauer AKR, Debener S, Nobre AC. Synchronisation of Neural Oscillations and Cross-modal Influences. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:481-495. [PMID: 32317142 PMCID: PMC7653674 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2019] [Revised: 02/20/2020] [Accepted: 03/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
At any given moment, we receive multiple signals from our different senses. Prior research has shown that signals in one sensory modality can influence neural activity and behavioural performance associated with another sensory modality. Recent human and nonhuman primate studies suggest that such cross-modal influences in sensory cortices are mediated by the synchronisation of ongoing neural oscillations. In this review, we consider two mechanisms proposed to facilitate cross-modal influences on sensory processing, namely cross-modal phase resetting and neural entrainment. We consider how top-down processes may further influence cross-modal processing in a flexible manner, and we highlight fruitful directions for further research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Katharina R Bauer
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Brain and Cognition Lab, Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, UK.
| | - Stefan Debener
- Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Lab, Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, University of Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Anna C Nobre
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Brain and Cognition Lab, Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, UK
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40
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Hickey P, Merseal H, Patel AD, Race E. Memory in time: Neural tracking of low-frequency rhythm dynamically modulates memory formation. Neuroimage 2020; 213:116693. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116693] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Revised: 02/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
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41
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Perrino PA, Talbot L, Kirkland R, Hill A, Rendall AR, Mountford HS, Taylor J, Buscarello AN, Lahiri N, Saggar A, Fitch RH, Newbury DF. Multi-level evidence of an allelic hierarchy of USH2A variants in hearing, auditory processing and speech/language outcomes. Commun Biol 2020; 3:180. [PMID: 32313182 PMCID: PMC7170883 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-0885-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2019] [Accepted: 03/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Language development builds upon a complex network of interacting subservient systems. It therefore follows that variations in, and subclinical disruptions of, these systems may have secondary effects on emergent language. In this paper, we consider the relationship between genetic variants, hearing, auditory processing and language development. We employ whole genome sequencing in a discovery family to target association and gene x environment interaction analyses in two large population cohorts; the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and UK10K. These investigations indicate that USH2A variants are associated with altered low-frequency sound perception which, in turn, increases the risk of developmental language disorder. We further show that Ush2a heterozygote mice have low-level hearing impairments, persistent higher-order acoustic processing deficits and altered vocalizations. These findings provide new insights into the complexity of genetic mechanisms serving language development and disorders and the relationships between developmental auditory and neural systems. Peter Perrino et al. identify variants in USH2A linked to a dominant language disorder in a human family and find that these variants are also associated with low-frequency hearing at the population level. They investigate the function of USH2A variants in mice, showing that mutations in this gene are responsible for hearing loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Perrino
- Department of Psychological Science/Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.,UConn Institute of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; UConn Murine Behavioral Neurogenetics Facility, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Lidiya Talbot
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Rose Kirkland
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK.,School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, UK
| | - Amanda Hill
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 2BN, UK
| | - Amanda R Rendall
- Department of Psychological Science/Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.,UConn Institute of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; UConn Murine Behavioral Neurogenetics Facility, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Hayley S Mountford
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Jenny Taylor
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK.,NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK
| | | | - Alexzandrea N Buscarello
- Department of Psychological Science/Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.,UConn Institute of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; UConn Murine Behavioral Neurogenetics Facility, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Nayana Lahiri
- Institute of Molecular and Clinical Sciences, St George's, University of London & St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Anand Saggar
- Institute of Molecular and Clinical Sciences, St George's, University of London & St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - R Holly Fitch
- Department of Psychological Science/Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. .,UConn Institute of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; UConn Murine Behavioral Neurogenetics Facility, Storrs, CT, USA.
| | - Dianne F Newbury
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK.
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42
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Guo Y, Bufacchi RJ, Novembre G, Kilintari M, Moayedi M, Hu L, Iannetti GD. Ultralow-frequency neural entrainment to pain. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000491. [PMID: 32282798 PMCID: PMC7179945 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Revised: 04/23/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Nervous systems exploit regularities in the sensory environment to predict sensory input, adjust behavior, and thereby maximize fitness. Entrainment of neural oscillations allows retaining temporal regularities of sensory information, a prerequisite for prediction. Entrainment has been extensively described at the frequencies of periodic inputs most commonly present in visual and auditory landscapes (e.g., >0.5 Hz). An open question is whether neural entrainment also occurs for regularities at much longer timescales. Here, we exploited the fact that the temporal dynamics of thermal stimuli in natural environment can unfold very slowly. We show that ultralow-frequency neural oscillations preserved a long-lasting trace of sensory information through neural entrainment to periodic thermo-nociceptive input as low as 0.1 Hz. Importantly, revealing the functional significance of this phenomenon, both power and phase of the entrainment predicted individual pain sensitivity. In contrast, periodic auditory input at the same ultralow frequency did not entrain ultralow-frequency oscillations. These results demonstrate that a functionally significant neural entrainment can occur at temporal scales far longer than those commonly explored. The non-supramodal nature of our results suggests that ultralow-frequency entrainment might be tuned to the temporal scale of the statistical regularities characteristic of different sensory modalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifei Guo
- Neuroscience and Behaviour Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Rory John Bufacchi
- Neuroscience and Behaviour Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Giacomo Novembre
- Neuroscience and Behaviour Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Marina Kilintari
- Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Massieh Moayedi
- Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Li Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Gian Domenico Iannetti
- Neuroscience and Behaviour Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy
- Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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43
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Balkenhol T, Wallhäusser-Franke E, Rotter N, Servais JJ. Changes in Speech-Related Brain Activity During Adaptation to Electro-Acoustic Hearing. Front Neurol 2020; 11:161. [PMID: 32300327 PMCID: PMC7145411 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2020.00161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives: Hearing improves significantly with bimodal provision, i.e., a cochlear implant (CI) at one ear and a hearing aid (HA) at the other, but performance shows a high degree of variability resulting in substantial uncertainty about the performance that can be expected by the individual CI user. The objective of this study was to explore how auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) of bimodal listeners in response to spoken words approximate the electrophysiological response of normal hearing (NH) listeners. Study Design: Explorative prospective analysis during the first 6 months of bimodal listening using a within-subject repeated measures design. Setting: Academic tertiary care center. Participants: Twenty-seven adult participants with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss who received a HiRes 90K CI and continued use of a HA at the non-implanted ear. Age-matched NH listeners served as controls. Intervention: Cochlear implantation. Main Outcome Measures: Obligatory auditory evoked potentials N1 and P2, and the event-related N2 potential in response to monosyllabic words and their reversed sound traces before, as well as 3 and 6 months post-implantation. The task required word/non-word classification. Stimuli were presented within speech-modulated noise. Loudness of word/non-word signals was adjusted individually to achieve the same intelligibility across groups and assessments. Results: Intelligibility improved significantly with bimodal hearing, and the N1-P2 response approximated the morphology seen in NH with enhanced and earlier responses to the words compared to their reversals. For bimodal listeners, a prominent negative deflection was present between 370 and 570 ms post stimulus onset (N2), irrespective of stimulus type. This was absent for NH controls; hence, this response did not approximate the NH response during the study interval. N2 source localization evidenced extended activation of general cognitive areas in frontal and prefrontal brain areas in the CI group. Conclusions: Prolonged and spatially extended processing in bimodal CI users suggests employment of additional auditory-cognitive mechanisms during speech processing. This does not reduce within 6 months of bimodal experience and may be a correlate of the enhanced listening effort described by CI listeners.
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Meyer L, Schaadt G. Aberrant Prestimulus Oscillations in Developmental Dyslexia Support an Underlying Attention Shifting Deficit. Cereb Cortex Commun 2020; 1:tgaa006. [PMID: 34296087 PMCID: PMC8152944 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgaa006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2020] [Revised: 02/14/2020] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia (DD) impairs reading and writing acquisition in 5–10% of children, compromising schooling, academic success, and everyday adult life. DD associates with reduced phonological skills, evident from a reduced auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). It was argued that such phonological deficits are secondary to an underlying deficit in the shifting of attention to upcoming speech sounds. Here, we tested whether the aberrant MMN in individuals with DD is a function of EEG correlates of prestimulus attention shifting; based on prior findings, we focused prestimulus analyses on alpha-band oscillations. We administered an audio–visual oddball paradigm to school children with and without DD. Children with DD showed EEG markers of deficient attention switching (i.e., increased prestimulus alpha-band intertrial phase coherence [ITPC]) to precede and predict their reduced MMN—aberrantly increased ITPC predicted an aberrantly reduced MMN. In interaction, ITPC and MMN predicted reading abilities, such that poor readers showed both high ITPC and a reduced MMN, the reverse being true in good readers. Prestimulus ITPC may be an overlooked biomarker of deficient attention shifting in DD. The findings support the proposal that an attention shifting deficit underlies phonological deficits in DD, entailing new opportunities for targeted intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lars Meyer
- Research Group "Language Cycles", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Gesa Schaadt
- Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, Medical Faculty, University Leipzig, Leipzig 04103, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
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45
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Laffere A, Dick F, Tierney A. Effects of auditory selective attention on neural phase: individual differences and short-term training. Neuroimage 2020; 213:116717. [PMID: 32165265 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2019] [Revised: 03/02/2020] [Accepted: 03/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
How does the brain follow a sound that is mixed with others in a noisy environment? One possible strategy is to allocate attention to task-relevant time intervals. Prior work has linked auditory selective attention to alignment of neural modulations with stimulus temporal structure. However, since this prior research used relatively easy tasks and focused on analysis of main effects of attention across participants, relatively little is known about the neural foundations of individual differences in auditory selective attention. Here we investigated individual differences in auditory selective attention by asking participants to perform a 1-back task on a target auditory stream while ignoring a distractor auditory stream presented 180° out of phase. Neural entrainment to the attended auditory stream was strongly linked to individual differences in task performance. Some variability in performance was accounted for by degree of musical training, suggesting a link between long-term auditory experience and auditory selective attention. To investigate whether short-term improvements in auditory selective attention are possible, we gave participants 2 h of auditory selective attention training and found improvements in both task performance and enhancements of the effects of attention on neural phase angle. Our results suggest that although there exist large individual differences in auditory selective attention and attentional modulation of neural phase angle, this skill improves after a small amount of targeted training.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aeron Laffere
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Fred Dick
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK; Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Adam Tierney
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK.
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46
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Wöstmann M, Schmitt LM, Obleser J. Does Closing the Eyes Enhance Auditory Attention? Eye Closure Increases Attentional Alpha-Power Modulation but Not Listening Performance. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:212-225. [DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
In challenging listening conditions, closing the eyes is a strategy with intuitive appeal to improve auditory attention and perception. On the neural level, closing the eyes increases the power of alpha oscillations (∼10 Hz), which are a prime signature of auditory attention. Here, we test whether eye closure benefits neural and behavioral signatures of auditory attention and perception. Participants (n = 22) attended to one of two alternating streams of spoken numbers with open or closed eyes in a darkened chamber. After each trial, participants indicated whether probes had been among the to-be-attended or to-be-ignored numbers. In the EEG, states of relative high versus low alpha power accompanied the presentation of attended versus ignored numbers. Importantly, eye closure did not only increase the overall level of absolute alpha power but also the attentional modulation thereof. Behaviorally, however, neither perceptual sensitivity nor response criterion was affected by eye closure. To further examine whether this behavioral null result would conceptually replicate in a simple auditory detection task, a follow-up experiment was conducted that required participants (n = 19) to detect a near-threshold target tone in noise. As in the main experiment, our results provide evidence for the absence of any difference in perceptual sensitivity and criterion for open versus closed eyes. In summary, we demonstrate here that the modulation of the human alpha rhythm by auditory attention is increased when participants close their eyes. However, our results speak against the widely held belief that eye closure per se improves listening behavior.
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Fei N, Ge J, Wang Y, Gao JH. Aging-related differences in the cortical network subserving intelligible speech. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2020; 201:104713. [PMID: 31759299 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2019] [Revised: 10/29/2019] [Accepted: 10/30/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Language communication is crucial throughout the lifespan. The current study investigated how aging affects the brain network subserving intelligible speech. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared brain responses to intelligible and unintelligible speech between older and young adults. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed reduced brain activation and lower regional pattern distinctions in response to intelligible versus unintelligible speech in the left anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) and the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in the older compared with young adults. Notably, the functional connectivity between the left IFG and the left angular gyrus (AG) was increased and a significantly enhanced bidirectional effective connectivity between the left aSTG and the left AG was observed in the older adults for processing speech intelligibility. Our study revealed aging-related differences in the cortical activity for intelligible speech and suggested that increased frontal-temporal-parietal functional integration may help facilitate spoken language processing in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nanxi Fei
- Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianqiao Ge
- Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
| | - Yi Wang
- Public Health Science and Engineering College, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
| | - Jia-Hong Gao
- Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China; Center for MRI Research, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.
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Choi I, Kim S, Schwalje A. Cortical dynamics of speech-in-noise understanding. ACOUSTICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2020; 41:400-403. [PMID: 34552385 PMCID: PMC8455081 DOI: 10.1250/ast.41.400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Inyong Choi
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa, 250 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
- Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 250 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Subong Kim
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Iowa, 250 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Adam Schwalje
- Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 250 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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Herrmann B, Buckland C, Johnsrude IS. Neural signatures of temporal regularity processing in sounds differ between younger and older adults. Neurobiol Aging 2019; 83:73-85. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2019.08.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2019] [Revised: 08/20/2019] [Accepted: 08/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
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50
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Zoefel B, Allard I, Anil M, Davis MH. Perception of Rhythmic Speech Is Modulated by Focal Bilateral Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation. J Cogn Neurosci 2019; 32:226-240. [PMID: 31659922 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Several recent studies have used transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to demonstrate a causal role of neural oscillatory activity in speech processing. In particular, it has been shown that the ability to understand speech in a multi-speaker scenario or background noise depends on the timing of speech presentation relative to simultaneously applied tACS. However, it is possible that tACS did not change actual speech perception but rather auditory stream segregation. In this study, we tested whether the phase relation between tACS and the rhythm of degraded words, presented in silence, modulates word report accuracy. We found strong evidence for a tACS-induced modulation of speech perception, but only if the stimulation was applied bilaterally using ring electrodes (not for unilateral left hemisphere stimulation with square electrodes). These results were only obtained when data were analyzed using a statistical approach that was identified as optimal in a previous simulation study. The effect was driven by a phasic disruption of word report scores. Our results suggest a causal role of neural entrainment for speech perception and emphasize the importance of optimizing stimulation protocols and statistical approaches for brain stimulation research.
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