Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension
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 th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-11-01
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| Series: | NeuroImage |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811923005554 |
| _version_ | 1797647884996313088 |
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| author | Xinmiao Zhang Jiawei Li Zhuoran Li Bo Hong Tongxiang Diao Xin Ma Guido Nolte Andreas K. Engel Dan Zhang |
| author_facet | Xinmiao Zhang Jiawei Li Zhuoran Li Bo Hong Tongxiang Diao Xin Ma Guido Nolte Andreas K. Engel Dan Zhang |
| author_sort | Xinmiao Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T15:24:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-59680215a6d24c5ba273eefb5623481e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T15:24:11Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj.art-59680215a6d24c5ba273eefb5623481e2023-10-28T05:06:49ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722023-11-01282120404Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehensionXinmiao Zhang0Jiawei Li1Zhuoran Li2Bo Hong3Tongxiang Diao4Xin Ma5Guido Nolte6Andreas K. Engel7Dan Zhang8Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, ChinaDepartment of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 14195, Federal Republic of GermanyDepartment of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, ChinaTsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, ChinaDepartment of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Peking University, People's Hospital, Beijing 100044, ChinaDepartment of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Peking University, People's Hospital, Beijing 100044, ChinaDepartment of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Federal Republic of GermanyDepartment of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Federal Republic of GermanyDepartment of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.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.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811923005554Speech-in-noise comprehensionSemantic processingNeural trackingTemporal response functionEEG |
| spellingShingle | Xinmiao Zhang Jiawei Li Zhuoran Li Bo Hong Tongxiang Diao Xin Ma Guido Nolte Andreas K. Engel Dan Zhang Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension NeuroImage Speech-in-noise comprehension Semantic processing Neural tracking Temporal response function EEG |
| title | Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension |
| title_full | Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension |
| title_fullStr | Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension |
| title_full_unstemmed | Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension |
| title_short | Leading and following: Noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension |
| title_sort | leading and following noise differently affects semantic and acoustic processing during naturalistic speech comprehension |
| topic | Speech-in-noise comprehension Semantic processing Neural tracking Temporal response function EEG |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811923005554 |
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