Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech
Auditory attention is an important cognitive function used to separate relevant from irrelevant auditory information. However, most findings on attentional selection have been obtained in highly controlled laboratory settings using bulky recording setups and unnaturalistic stimuli. Recent advances i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.869426/full |
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| author | Björn Holtze Marc Rosenkranz Manuela Jaeger Manuela Jaeger Stefan Debener Stefan Debener Stefan Debener Bojana Mirkovic |
| author_facet | Björn Holtze Marc Rosenkranz Manuela Jaeger Manuela Jaeger Stefan Debener Stefan Debener Stefan Debener Bojana Mirkovic |
| author_sort | Björn Holtze |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Auditory attention is an important cognitive function used to separate relevant from irrelevant auditory information. However, most findings on attentional selection have been obtained in highly controlled laboratory settings using bulky recording setups and unnaturalistic stimuli. Recent advances in electroencephalography (EEG) facilitate the measurement of brain activity outside the laboratory, and around-the-ear sensors such as the cEEGrid promise unobtrusive acquisition. In parallel, methods such as speech envelope tracking, intersubject correlations and spectral entropy measures emerged which allow us to study attentional effects in the neural processing of natural, continuous auditory scenes. In the current study, we investigated whether these three attentional measures can be reliably obtained when using around-the-ear EEG. To this end, we analyzed the cEEGrid data of 36 participants who attended to one of two simultaneously presented speech streams. Speech envelope tracking results confirmed a reliable identification of the attended speaker from cEEGrid data. The accuracies in identifying the attended speaker increased when fitting the classification model to the individual. Artifact correction of the cEEGrid data with artifact subspace reconstruction did not increase the classification accuracy. Intersubject correlations were higher for those participants attending to the same speech stream than for those attending to different speech streams, replicating previously obtained results with high-density cap-EEG. We also found that spectral entropy decreased over time, possibly reflecting the decrease in the listener’s level of attention. Overall, these results support the idea of using ear-EEG measurements to unobtrusively monitor auditory attention to continuous speech. This knowledge may help to develop assistive devices that support listeners separating relevant from irrelevant information in complex auditory environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:25:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3c06e18e30164ed8a106bad3fce733d8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-453X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:25:28Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-3c06e18e30164ed8a106bad3fce733d82022-12-22T02:35:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neuroscience1662-453X2022-05-011610.3389/fnins.2022.869426869426Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous SpeechBjörn Holtze0Marc Rosenkranz1Manuela Jaeger2Manuela Jaeger3Stefan Debener4Stefan Debener5Stefan Debener6Bojana Mirkovic7Neuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyNeurophysiology of Everyday Life Group, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyNeuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyDivision Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology, Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Oldenburg, GermanyNeuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyResearch Center for Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyCluster of Excellence Hearing4all, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyNeuropsychology Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, GermanyAuditory attention is an important cognitive function used to separate relevant from irrelevant auditory information. However, most findings on attentional selection have been obtained in highly controlled laboratory settings using bulky recording setups and unnaturalistic stimuli. Recent advances in electroencephalography (EEG) facilitate the measurement of brain activity outside the laboratory, and around-the-ear sensors such as the cEEGrid promise unobtrusive acquisition. In parallel, methods such as speech envelope tracking, intersubject correlations and spectral entropy measures emerged which allow us to study attentional effects in the neural processing of natural, continuous auditory scenes. In the current study, we investigated whether these three attentional measures can be reliably obtained when using around-the-ear EEG. To this end, we analyzed the cEEGrid data of 36 participants who attended to one of two simultaneously presented speech streams. Speech envelope tracking results confirmed a reliable identification of the attended speaker from cEEGrid data. The accuracies in identifying the attended speaker increased when fitting the classification model to the individual. Artifact correction of the cEEGrid data with artifact subspace reconstruction did not increase the classification accuracy. Intersubject correlations were higher for those participants attending to the same speech stream than for those attending to different speech streams, replicating previously obtained results with high-density cap-EEG. We also found that spectral entropy decreased over time, possibly reflecting the decrease in the listener’s level of attention. Overall, these results support the idea of using ear-EEG measurements to unobtrusively monitor auditory attention to continuous speech. This knowledge may help to develop assistive devices that support listeners separating relevant from irrelevant information in complex auditory environments.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.869426/fullaround-the-ear EEGcEEGridauditory attentionspeech envelope trackingintersubject correlation (ISC)spectral entropy |
| spellingShingle | Björn Holtze Marc Rosenkranz Manuela Jaeger Manuela Jaeger Stefan Debener Stefan Debener Stefan Debener Bojana Mirkovic Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech Frontiers in Neuroscience around-the-ear EEG cEEGrid auditory attention speech envelope tracking intersubject correlation (ISC) spectral entropy |
| title | Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech |
| title_full | Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech |
| title_fullStr | Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech |
| title_short | Ear-EEG Measures of Auditory Attention to Continuous Speech |
| title_sort | ear eeg measures of auditory attention to continuous speech |
| topic | around-the-ear EEG cEEGrid auditory attention speech envelope tracking intersubject correlation (ISC) spectral entropy |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.869426/full |
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