scholarly journals Hearing and seeing meaning in noise: Alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations predict gestural enhancement of degraded speech comprehension

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 2075-2087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Drijvers ◽  
Asli Özyürek ◽  
Ole Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Alpha Beta

scholarly journals Covert Attention to Gestures Is Sufficient for Information Uptake

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Gimhani Kandana Arachchige ◽  
Wivine Blekic ◽  
Isabelle Simoes Loureiro ◽  
Laurent Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Information Extraction ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Tracking Technology

Numerous studies have explored the benefit of iconic gestures in speech comprehension. However, only few studies have investigated how visual attention was allocated to these gestures in the context of clear versus degraded speech and the way information is extracted for enhancing comprehension. This study aimed to explore the effect of iconic gestures on comprehension and whether fixating the gesture is required for information extraction. Four types of gestures (i.e., semantically and syntactically incongruent iconic gestures, meaningless configurations, and congruent iconic gestures) were presented in a sentence context in three different listening conditions (i.e., clear, partly degraded or fully degraded speech). Using eye tracking technology, participants’ gaze was recorded, while they watched video clips after which they were invited to answer simple comprehension questions. Results first showed that different types of gestures differently attract attention and that the more speech was degraded, the less participants would pay attention to gestures. Furthermore, semantically incongruent gestures appeared to particularly impair comprehension although not being fixated while congruent gestures appeared to improve comprehension despite also not being fixated. These results suggest that covert attention is sufficient to convey information that will be processed by the listener.

scholarly journals Delayed Auditory Tone Perception in Multiple Sclerosis

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Quine ◽  
David Regan ◽  
Thomas J. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Frequency Band ◽  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Tone Perception ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Auditory Acuity ◽  
Multiple Sclerosis Patients

SUMMARY:Delays of auditory perception at three frequencies were measured in 30 multiple sclerosis patients using a pscyhophysical technique. Nineteen patients had abnormal delays at one or more tone frequencies, though 15 had normal audiograms at those frequencies. In addition, auditory acuity for left-right asynchrony was abnormally poor in 13 patients, 9 of whom had normal audiograms. Such delays of auditory perception within a restricted frequency band may provide a partial explanation for degraded speech comprehension in some multiple sclerosis patients.

scholarly journals Neural activity during sentence processing as reflected in theta, alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations

NeuroImage ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nietzsche H.L. Lam ◽  
Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen ◽  
Julia Uddén ◽  
Annika Hultén ◽  
Peter Hagoort
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Alpha Beta

scholarly journals Eye Gaze And Perceptual Adaptation To Audiovisual Degraded Speech

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Briony Banks ◽  
Emma Gowen ◽  
Kevin Munro ◽  
patti adank
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Audio Signal ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Perceptual Adaptation ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Over Time

Visual cues from a speaker’s face may improve perceptual adaptation to degraded speech over time, but current evidence is limited. We aimed to replicate results from previous studies and extend them to more demanding speech stimuli (sentences), to better represent real-life, challenging speech comprehension. In addition, we investigated whether particular eye gaze patterns towards the speaker’s mouth were related to adaptation, hypothesising that listeners who looked more at the speaker’s mouth would show greater adaptation. A group of listeners were presented with noise-vocoded sentences in audiovisual format while a control group were presented with the audio signal only, presented congruently with a still image of the speaker’s face. Results of previous adaptation studies were partially replicated: the audiovisual group had better recognition throughout and adapted slightly more rapidly, but both groups showed an equal amount of improvement overall (after exposure to 90 sentences). Longer fixations on the speaker’s mouth in the audiovisual group were related to better overall accuracy, although evidence for this relationship was relatively weak. An exploratory analysis further showed that the duration of fixations to the speaker’s mouth decreased over time. The results suggest that the benefits from visual cues to adaptation to unfamiliar speech vary more than previously thought. Longer fixations on a speaker’s mouth may play a role in successfully decoding these cues, but more evidence is needed to fully establish how patterns of eye gaze are related to audiovisual speech recognition.

scholarly journals Preservation and Changes in Oscillatory Dynamics across the Cortical Hierarchy

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 2024-2035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Lundqvist ◽  
André M. Bastos ◽  
Earl K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Local Field ◽  
Local Field Potentials ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Field Potentials ◽  
Oscillatory Dynamics ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Cortical Hierarchy ◽  
Alpha Beta ◽  
Spiking Activity ◽  
Prefrontal Cortices

Theta (2–8 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz), beta (12–35 Hz), and gamma (>35 Hz) rhythms are ubiquitous in the cortex. However, there is little understanding of whether they have similar properties and functions in different cortical areas because they have rarely been compared across them. We record neuronal spikes and local field potentials simultaneously at several levels of the cortical hierarchy in monkeys. Theta, alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations had similar relationships to spiking activity in visual, parietal, and prefrontal cortices. However, the frequencies in all bands increased up the cortical hierarchy. These results suggest that these rhythms have similar inhibitory and excitatory functions across the cortex. We discuss how the increase in frequencies up the cortical hierarchy may help sculpt cortical flow and processing.

scholarly journals Neural rhythmic symphony of human walking observation: Upside-down and Uncoordinated condition on cortical theta, alpha, beta and gamma oscillations

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Zarka ◽  
Carlos Cevallos ◽  
Mathieu Petieau ◽  
Thomas Hoellinger ◽  
Bernard Dan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Human Walking ◽  
Alpha Beta

scholarly journals Age-related differences in the neural network dynamics underlying the predictability gain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Uta Rysop ◽  
Lea-Maria Schmitt ◽  
Jonas Obleser ◽  
Gesa Hartwigsen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Network Dynamics ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Inhibitory Influence ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Age Related

AbstractSpeech comprehension is often challenged by increased background noise, but can be facilitated via the semantic context of a sentence. This predictability gain relies on an interplay of language-specific semantic and domain-general brain regions. However, age-related differences in the interactions within and between semantic and domain-general networks remain poorly understood. Here we investigated commonalities and differences in degraded speech processing in healthy young and old participants. Participants performed a sentence repetition task while listening to sentences with high and low predictable endings and varying intelligibility. Stimulus intelligibility was adjusted to individual hearing abilities. Older adults showed an undiminished behavioural predictability gain. Likewise, both groups recruited a similar set of semantic and cingulo-opercular brain regions. However, we observed age-related differences in effective connectivity for high predictable speech of increasing intelligibility. Young adults exhibited stronger coupling within the cingulo-opercular network and between a cingulo-opercular and a posterior temporal semantic node. Moreover, these interactions were excitatory in young adults but inhibitory in old adults. Finally, the degree of the inhibitory influence between cingulo-opercular regions was predictive of the behavioural sensitivity towards changes in intelligibility for high predictable sentences in older adults only. Our results demonstrate that the predictability gain is relatively preserved in older adults when stimulus intelligibility is individually adjusted. While young and old participants recruit similar brain regions, differences manifest in network dynamics. Together, these results suggest that ageing affects the network configuration rather than regional activity during successful speech comprehension under challenging listening conditions.

Narrowed Expectancies under Degraded Speech: Revisiting the N400

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1383-1395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Strauß ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz ◽  
Jonas Obleser
Keyword(s):  
Neural System ◽  
Semantic Context ◽  
Auditory Signal ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Context Word ◽  
Clear Speech ◽  
N400 Effect ◽  
Signal Degradation ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Over Time

Under adverse listening conditions, speech comprehension profits from the expectancies that listeners derive from the semantic context. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms of this semantic benefit are unclear: How are expectancies formed from context and adjusted as a sentence unfolds over time under various degrees of acoustic degradation? In an EEG study, we modified auditory signal degradation by applying noise-vocoding (severely degraded: four-band, moderately degraded: eight-band, and clear speech). Orthogonal to that, we manipulated the extent of expectancy: strong or weak semantic context (±con) and context-based typicality of the sentence-last word (high or low: ±typ). This allowed calculation of two distinct effects of expectancy on the N400 component of the evoked potential. The sentence-final N400 effect was taken as an index of the neural effort of automatic word-into-context integration; it varied in peak amplitude and latency with signal degradation and was not reliably observed in response to severely degraded speech. Under clear speech conditions in a strong context, typical and untypical sentence completions seemed to fulfill the neural prediction, as indicated by N400 reductions. In response to moderately degraded signal quality, however, the formed expectancies appeared more specific: Only typical (+con +typ), but not the less typical (+con −typ) context–word combinations led to a decrease in the N400 amplitude. The results show that adverse listening “narrows,” rather than broadens, the expectancies about the perceived speech signal: limiting the perceptual evidence forces the neural system to rely on signal-driven expectancies, rather than more abstract expectancies, while a sentence unfolds over time.

scholarly journals Visual Enhancement of Relevant Speech in a ‘Cocktail Party’

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niti Jaha ◽  
Stanley Shen ◽  
Jess R. Kerlin ◽  
Antoine J. Shahin
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potential ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Cocktail Party ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Visual Enhancement ◽  
Lip Reading ◽  
Auditory Scene ◽  
The Voice

Abstract Lip-reading improves intelligibility in noisy acoustical environments. We hypothesized that watching mouth movements benefits speech comprehension in a ‘cocktail party’ by strengthening the encoding of the neural representations of the visually paired speech stream. In an audiovisual (AV) task, EEG was recorded as participants watched and listened to videos of a speaker uttering a sentence while also hearing a concurrent sentence by a speaker of the opposite gender. A key manipulation was that each audio sentence had a 200-ms segment replaced by white noise. To assess comprehension, subjects were tasked with transcribing the AV-attended sentence on randomly selected trials. In the auditory-only trials, subjects listened to the same sentences and completed the same task while watching a static picture of a speaker of either gender. Subjects directed their listening to the voice of the gender of the speaker in the video. We found that the N1 auditory-evoked potential (AEP) time-locked to white noise onsets was significantly more inhibited for the AV-attended sentences than for those of the auditorily-attended (A-attended) and AV-unattended sentences. N1 inhibition to noise onsets has been shown to index restoration of phonemic representations of degraded speech. These results underscore that attention and congruency in the AV setting help streamline the complex auditory scene, partly by reinforcing the neural representations of the visually attended stream, heightening the perception of continuity and comprehension.

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