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Visual input enhances selective speech envelope tracking in auditory cortex at a "cocktail party".

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zion Golumbic, E; Cogan, GB; Schroeder, CE; Poeppel, D
Published in: J Neurosci
January 23, 2013

Our ability to selectively attend to one auditory signal amid competing input streams, epitomized by the "Cocktail Party" problem, continues to stimulate research from various approaches. How this demanding perceptual feat is achieved from a neural systems perspective remains unclear and controversial. It is well established that neural responses to attended stimuli are enhanced compared with responses to ignored ones, but responses to ignored stimuli are nonetheless highly significant, leading to interference in performance. We investigated whether congruent visual input of an attended speaker enhances cortical selectivity in auditory cortex, leading to diminished representation of ignored stimuli. We recorded magnetoencephalographic signals from human participants as they attended to segments of natural continuous speech. Using two complementary methods of quantifying the neural response to speech, we found that viewing a speaker's face enhances the capacity of auditory cortex to track the temporal speech envelope of that speaker. This mechanism was most effective in a Cocktail Party setting, promoting preferential tracking of the attended speaker, whereas without visual input no significant attentional modulation was observed. These neurophysiological results underscore the importance of visual input in resolving perceptual ambiguity in a noisy environment. Since visual cues in speech precede the associated auditory signals, they likely serve a predictive role in facilitating auditory processing of speech, perhaps by directing attentional resources to appropriate points in time when to-be-attended acoustic input is expected to arrive.

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Published In

J Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1529-2401

Publication Date

January 23, 2013

Volume

33

Issue

4

Start / End Page

1417 / 1426

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Speech Perception
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Male
  • Magnetoencephalography
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Auditory Cortex
  • 3209 Neurosciences
 

Citation

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Zion Golumbic, E., Cogan, G. B., Schroeder, C. E., & Poeppel, D. (2013). Visual input enhances selective speech envelope tracking in auditory cortex at a "cocktail party". J Neurosci, 33(4), 1417–1426. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3675-12.2013
Zion Golumbic, Elana, Gregory B. Cogan, Charles E. Schroeder, and David Poeppel. “Visual input enhances selective speech envelope tracking in auditory cortex at a "cocktail party".J Neurosci 33, no. 4 (January 23, 2013): 1417–26. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3675-12.2013.
Zion Golumbic E, Cogan GB, Schroeder CE, Poeppel D. Visual input enhances selective speech envelope tracking in auditory cortex at a "cocktail party". J Neurosci. 2013 Jan 23;33(4):1417–26.
Zion Golumbic, Elana, et al. “Visual input enhances selective speech envelope tracking in auditory cortex at a "cocktail party".J Neurosci, vol. 33, no. 4, Jan. 2013, pp. 1417–26. Pubmed, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3675-12.2013.
Zion Golumbic E, Cogan GB, Schroeder CE, Poeppel D. Visual input enhances selective speech envelope tracking in auditory cortex at a "cocktail party". J Neurosci. 2013 Jan 23;33(4):1417–1426.

Published In

J Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1529-2401

Publication Date

January 23, 2013

Volume

33

Issue

4

Start / End Page

1417 / 1426

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Speech Perception
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • Male
  • Magnetoencephalography
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Auditory Cortex
  • 3209 Neurosciences