EEG-based speaker-listener neural coupling reflects speech-selective attentional mechanisms beyond the speech stimulus

TY - JOUR

T1 - EEG-based speaker-listener neural coupling reflects speech-selective attentional mechanisms beyond the speech stimulus

AU - Li, Jiawei

AU - Hong, Bo

AU - Nolte, Guido

AU - Engel, Andreas K

AU - Zhang, Dan

N1 - © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

PY - 2023/11/4

Y1 - 2023/11/4

N2 - When we pay attention to someone, do we focus only on the sound they make, the word they use, or do we form a mental space shared with the speaker we want to pay attention to? Some would argue that the human language is no other than a simple signal, but others claim that human beings understand each other because they form a shared mental ground between the speaker and the listener. Our study aimed to explore the neural mechanisms of speech-selective attention by investigating the electroencephalogram-based neural coupling between the speaker and the listener in a cocktail party paradigm. The temporal response function method was employed to reveal how the listener was coupled to the speaker at the neural level. The results showed that the neural coupling between the listener and the attended speaker peaked 5 s before speech onset at the delta band over the left frontal region, and was correlated with speech comprehension performance. In contrast, the attentional processing of speech acoustics and semantics occurred primarily at a later stage after speech onset and was not significantly correlated with comprehension performance. These findings suggest a predictive mechanism to achieve speaker-listener neural coupling for successful speech comprehension.

AB - When we pay attention to someone, do we focus only on the sound they make, the word they use, or do we form a mental space shared with the speaker we want to pay attention to? Some would argue that the human language is no other than a simple signal, but others claim that human beings understand each other because they form a shared mental ground between the speaker and the listener. Our study aimed to explore the neural mechanisms of speech-selective attention by investigating the electroencephalogram-based neural coupling between the speaker and the listener in a cocktail party paradigm. The temporal response function method was employed to reveal how the listener was coupled to the speaker at the neural level. The results showed that the neural coupling between the listener and the attended speaker peaked 5 s before speech onset at the delta band over the left frontal region, and was correlated with speech comprehension performance. In contrast, the attentional processing of speech acoustics and semantics occurred primarily at a later stage after speech onset and was not significantly correlated with comprehension performance. These findings suggest a predictive mechanism to achieve speaker-listener neural coupling for successful speech comprehension.

KW - Humans

KW - Speech/physiology

KW - Speech Perception/physiology

KW - Electroencephalography

KW - Language

KW - Speech Acoustics

U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhad347

DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhad347

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 37814353

VL - 33

SP - 11080

EP - 11091

JO - CEREB CORTEX

JF - CEREB CORTEX

SN - 1047-3211

IS - 22

ER -