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Electrophysiological and behavioral measures of some speech contrasts in varied attention and noise

Morris, David Jackson LU ; Tøndering, John and Lindgren, Magnus LU (2019) In Hearing Research 373. p.1-9
Abstract

This paper investigates the salience of speech contrasts in noise, in relation to how listening attention affects scalp-recorded cortical responses. The contrasts that were examined with consonant-vowel syllables, were place of articulation, vowel length and voice-onset time (VOT) and our analysis focuses on the correspondence between the effect of attention on the electrophysiology and the decrement in behavioral results when noise was added to the stimuli. Normal-hearing subjects (n = 20) performed closed-set syllable identification in no noise, 0, 4 and 8 dB signal-noise ratio (SNR). Identification in noise decreased markedly for place of articulation, moderately for vowel length and marginally for VOT. The same syllables were used... (More)

This paper investigates the salience of speech contrasts in noise, in relation to how listening attention affects scalp-recorded cortical responses. The contrasts that were examined with consonant-vowel syllables, were place of articulation, vowel length and voice-onset time (VOT) and our analysis focuses on the correspondence between the effect of attention on the electrophysiology and the decrement in behavioral results when noise was added to the stimuli. Normal-hearing subjects (n = 20) performed closed-set syllable identification in no noise, 0, 4 and 8 dB signal-noise ratio (SNR). Identification in noise decreased markedly for place of articulation, moderately for vowel length and marginally for VOT. The same syllables were used in two electrophysiology conditions, where subjects attended to the stimuli, and also while their attention was diverted to a visual discrimination task. Differences in global field power between the attention conditions from each contrast showed that that the effect of attention was negligible for place of articulation. They implied offset encoding of vowel length and were early (starting at 117 ms), and of high amplitude (>3 μV) for VOT. There were significant correlations between the difference in syllable identification in no noise and 0 dB SNR and the electrophysiology results between attention conditions for the VOT contrast. Comparison of the two attention conditions with microstate analysis showed a significant difference in the duration of microstate class D. These results show differential integration of attention and syllable processing according to speech contrast and they suggest that there is correspondence between the salience of a contrast in noise and the effect of attention on the evoked electrical response.

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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Danish phonology, EEG microstates, Electrophysiology, Global field power, Place of articulation, Speech features, Speech perception, Voice onset time, Vowel length
in
Hearing Research
volume
373
pages
9 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:30553033
  • scopus:85058183373
ISSN
0378-5955
DOI
10.1016/j.heares.2018.12.001
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ab716c80-8c2c-48c8-84c1-b5ec261e7821
date added to LUP
2018-12-17 13:43:30
date last changed
2024-01-15 10:03:19
@article{ab716c80-8c2c-48c8-84c1-b5ec261e7821,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper investigates the salience of speech contrasts in noise, in relation to how listening attention affects scalp-recorded cortical responses. The contrasts that were examined with consonant-vowel syllables, were place of articulation, vowel length and voice-onset time (VOT) and our analysis focuses on the correspondence between the effect of attention on the electrophysiology and the decrement in behavioral results when noise was added to the stimuli. Normal-hearing subjects (n = 20) performed closed-set syllable identification in no noise, 0, 4 and 8 dB signal-noise ratio (SNR). Identification in noise decreased markedly for place of articulation, moderately for vowel length and marginally for VOT. The same syllables were used in two electrophysiology conditions, where subjects attended to the stimuli, and also while their attention was diverted to a visual discrimination task. Differences in global field power between the attention conditions from each contrast showed that that the effect of attention was negligible for place of articulation. They implied offset encoding of vowel length and were early (starting at 117 ms), and of high amplitude (&gt;3 μV) for VOT. There were significant correlations between the difference in syllable identification in no noise and 0 dB SNR and the electrophysiology results between attention conditions for the VOT contrast. Comparison of the two attention conditions with microstate analysis showed a significant difference in the duration of microstate class D. These results show differential integration of attention and syllable processing according to speech contrast and they suggest that there is correspondence between the salience of a contrast in noise and the effect of attention on the evoked electrical response.</p>}},
  author       = {{Morris, David Jackson and Tøndering, John and Lindgren, Magnus}},
  issn         = {{0378-5955}},
  keywords     = {{Danish phonology; EEG microstates; Electrophysiology; Global field power; Place of articulation; Speech features; Speech perception; Voice onset time; Vowel length}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--9}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Hearing Research}},
  title        = {{Electrophysiological and behavioral measures of some speech contrasts in varied attention and noise}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2018.12.001}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.heares.2018.12.001}},
  volume       = {{373}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}