Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension

TY - JOUR

T1 - Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension

AU - Zhang, Xinmiao

AU - Li, Jiawei

AU - Li, Zhuoran

AU - Hong, Bo

AU - Diao, Tongxiang

AU - Ma, Xin

AU - Nolte, Guido

AU - Engel, Andreas K

AU - Zhang, Dan

N1 - Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2023/11/15

Y1 - 2023/11/15

N2 - Despite the distortion of speech signals caused by unavoidable noise in daily life, our ability to comprehend speech in noisy environments is relatively stable. However, the neural mechanisms underlying reliable speech-in-noise comprehension remain to be elucidated. The present study investigated the neural tracking of acoustic and semantic speech information during noisy naturalistic speech comprehension. Participants listened to narrative audio recordings mixed with spectrally matched stationary noise at three signal-to-ratio (SNR) levels (no noise, 3 dB, -3 dB), and 60-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded. A temporal response function (TRF) method was employed to derive event-related-like responses to the continuous speech stream at both the acoustic and the semantic levels. Whereas the amplitude envelope of the naturalistic speech was taken as the acoustic feature, word entropy and word surprisal were extracted via the natural language processing method as two semantic features. Theta-band frontocentral TRF responses to the acoustic feature were observed at around 400 ms following speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels, and the response latencies were more delayed with increasing noise. Delta-band frontal TRF responses to the semantic feature of word entropy were observed at around 200 to 600 ms leading to speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels. The response latencies became more leading with increasing noise and decreasing speech comprehension and intelligibility. While the following responses to speech acoustics were consistent with previous studies, our study revealed the robustness of leading responses to speech semantics, which suggests a possible predictive mechanism at the semantic level for maintaining reliable speech comprehension in noisy environments.

AB - Despite the distortion of speech signals caused by unavoidable noise in daily life, our ability to comprehend speech in noisy environments is relatively stable. However, the neural mechanisms underlying reliable speech-in-noise comprehension remain to be elucidated. The present study investigated the neural tracking of acoustic and semantic speech information during noisy naturalistic speech comprehension. Participants listened to narrative audio recordings mixed with spectrally matched stationary noise at three signal-to-ratio (SNR) levels (no noise, 3 dB, -3 dB), and 60-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded. A temporal response function (TRF) method was employed to derive event-related-like responses to the continuous speech stream at both the acoustic and the semantic levels. Whereas the amplitude envelope of the naturalistic speech was taken as the acoustic feature, word entropy and word surprisal were extracted via the natural language processing method as two semantic features. Theta-band frontocentral TRF responses to the acoustic feature were observed at around 400 ms following speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels, and the response latencies were more delayed with increasing noise. Delta-band frontal TRF responses to the semantic feature of word entropy were observed at around 200 to 600 ms leading to speech fluctuation onset over all three SNR levels. The response latencies became more leading with increasing noise and decreasing speech comprehension and intelligibility. While the following responses to speech acoustics were consistent with previous studies, our study revealed the robustness of leading responses to speech semantics, which suggests a possible predictive mechanism at the semantic level for maintaining reliable speech comprehension in noisy environments.

KW - Humans

KW - Comprehension/physiology

KW - Semantics

KW - Speech/physiology

KW - Speech Perception/physiology

KW - Electroencephalography

KW - Acoustics

KW - Acoustic Stimulation

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120404

DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120404

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 37806465

VL - 282

SP - 120404

JO - NEUROIMAGE

JF - NEUROIMAGE

SN - 1053-8119

ER -