Pursuing the question why listening to speech in the presence of a second speaker is so challenging, we show that listeners maintain selective auditory representations of ignored speech at an early stage of auditory processing. Neural representations of segregated acoustic features in ignored speech may be distracting by occupying cognitive resources and acting as bottom-up attention cues.
Characterizing the neural dynamics underlying sensory processing is one of the central areas of investigation in systems and cognitive neuroscience. Neuroimaging techniques such as magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Electroencephalography (EEG) have …
We isolated brain responses related to the transformation from acoustic to linguistic representations of continuous speech by modeling word recognition with information theory. We then demonstrate that, in the presence of multiple talkers, only attended speech is processed lexically. This is evidence against the hypothesis that words in background speech are processed preconsciously.
Previous research has found that, paradoxically, while older adults have more difficulty comprehending speech in challenging circumstances than younger adults, their brain responses track the envelope of the acoustic signal more robustly. Here we …
Human experience often involves continuous sensory information that unfolds over time. This is true in particular for speech comprehension, where continuous acoustic signals are processed over seconds or even minutes. We show that brain responses to …
Humans have a striking capacity to combine words into sentences that express new meanings. Previous research has identified key brain regions involved in this capacity, but little is known about the time course of activity in these regions, as …
A critical component of comprehending language in context is identifying the entities that individual linguistic expressions refer to. While previous research has shown that language comprehenders resolve reference quickly and incrementally, little …
Successful language comprehension critically depends on our ability to link linguistic expressions to the entities they refer to. Without reference resolution, newly encountered language cannot be related to previously acquired knowledge. The human …
BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that language comprehenders resolve reference quickly and incrementally, but not much is known about the neural processes and representations that are involved. Studies of visual short-term memory suggest that …
Magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography (M/EEG) measure the weak electromagnetic signals originating from neural currents in the brain. Using these signals to characterize and locate brain activity is a challenging task, as evidenced by …