Dataset Information

Look who's talking: the deployment of visuo-spatial attention during multisensory speech processing under noisy environmental conditions.

ABSTRACT: In a crowded scene we can effectively focus our attention on a specific speaker while largely ignoring sensory inputs from other speakers. How attended speech inputs are extracted from similar competing information has been primarily studied in the auditory domain. Here we examined the deployment of visuo-spatial attention in multiple speaker scenarios. Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) were monitored as a real-time index of visual attention towards three competing speakers. Participants were instructed to detect a target syllable by the center speaker and ignore syllables from two flanking speakers. The study incorporated interference trials (syllables from three speakers), no-interference trials (syllable from center speaker only), and periods without speech stimulation in which static faces were presented. An enhancement of flanking speaker induced SSVEP was found 70-220 ms after sound onset over left temporal scalp during interference trials. This enhancement was negatively correlated with the behavioral performance of participants -- those who showed largest enhancements had the worst speech recognition performance. Additionally, poorly performing participants exhibited enhanced flanking speaker induced SSVEP over visual scalp during periods without speech stimulation. The present study provides neurophysiologic evidence that the deployment of visuo-spatial attention to flanking speakers interferes with the recognition of multisensory speech signals under noisy environmental conditions.

SUBMITTER: Senkowski D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596295 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Look who's talking: the deployment of visuo-spatial attention during multisensory speech processing under noisy environmental conditions.

Senkowski Daniel D Saint-Amour Dave D Gruber Thomas T Foxe John J JJ

NeuroImage 20080718 2

In a crowded scene we can effectively focus our attention on a specific speaker while largely ignoring sensory inputs from other speakers. How attended speech inputs are extracted from similar competing information has been primarily studied in the auditory domain. Here we examined the deployment of visuo-spatial attention in multiple speaker scenarios. Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) were monitored as a real-time index of visual attention towards three competing speakers. Particip ...[more]

PMID: 18678262

Similar Datasets

Project description:Background: There exists a cohort of children and adults who exhibit an inordinately high degree of discomfort when experiencing what would be considered moderate and manageable levels of sensory input. That is, they show over-responsivity in the face of entirely typical sound, light, touch, taste, or smell inputs, and this occurs to such an extent that it interferes with their daily functioning and reaches clinical levels of dysfunction. What marks these individuals apart is that this sensory processing disorder (SPD) is observed in the absence of other symptom clusters that would result in a diagnosis of Autism, ADHD, or other neurodevelopmental disorders more typically associated with sensory processing difficulties. One major theory forwarded to account for these SPDs posits a deficit in multisensory integration, such that the various sensory inputs are not appropriately integrated into the central nervous system, leading to an overwhelming sensory-perceptual environment, and in turn to the sensory-defensive phenotype observed in these individuals. Methods: We tested whether children (6-16 years) with an over-responsive SPD phenotype (N = 12) integrated multisensory speech differently from age-matched typically-developing controls (TD: N = 12). Participants identified monosyllabic words while background noise level and sensory modality (auditory-alone, visual-alone, audiovisual) were varied in pseudorandom order. Improved word identification when speech was both seen and heard compared to when it was simply heard served to index multisensory speech integration. Results: School-aged children with an SPD show a deficit in the ability to benefit from the combination of both seen and heard speech inputs under noisy environmental conditions, suggesting that these children do not benefit from multisensory integrative processing to the same extent as their typically developing peers. In contrast, auditory-alone performance did not differ between the groups, signifying that this multisensory deficit is not simply due to impaired processing of auditory speech. Conclusions: Children with an over-responsive SPD show a substantial reduction in their ability to benefit from complementary audiovisual speech, to enhance speech perception in a noisy environment. This has clear implications for performance in the classroom and other learning environments. Impaired multisensory integration may contribute to sensory over-reactivity that is the definitional of SPD.

Project description:A cochlear implant (CI) is an auditory prosthesis which can partially restore the auditory function in patients with severe to profound hearing loss. However, this bionic device provides only limited auditory information, and CI patients may compensate for this limitation by means of a stronger interaction between the auditory and visual system. To better understand the electrophysiological correlates of audiovisual speech perception, the present study used electroencephalography (EEG) and a redundant target paradigm. Postlingually deafened CI users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners were compared in auditory, visual and audiovisual speech conditions. The behavioural results revealed multisensory integration for both groups, as indicated by shortened response times for the audiovisual as compared to the two unisensory conditions. The analysis of the N1 and P2 event-related potentials (ERPs), including topographic and source analyses, confirmed a multisensory effect for both groups and showed a cortical auditory response which was modulated by the simultaneous processing of the visual stimulus. Nevertheless, the CI users in particular revealed a distinct pattern of N1 topography, pointing to a strong visual impact on auditory speech processing. Apart from these condition effects, the results revealed ERP differences between CI users and NH listeners, not only in N1/P2 ERP topographies, but also in the cortical source configuration. When compared to the NH listeners, the CI users showed an additional activation in the visual cortex at N1 latency, which was positively correlated with CI experience, and a delayed auditory-cortex activation with a reversed, rightward functional lateralisation. In sum, our behavioural and ERP findings demonstrate a clear audiovisual benefit for both groups, and a CI-specific alteration in cortical activation at N1 latency when auditory and visual input is combined. These cortical alterations may reflect a compensatory strategy to overcome the limited CI input, which allows the CI users to improve the lip-reading skills and to approximate the behavioural performance of NH listeners in audiovisual speech conditions. Our results are clinically relevant, as they highlight the importance of assessing the CI outcome not only in auditory-only, but also in audiovisual speech conditions.

Dataset Information

Look who's talking: the deployment of visuo-spatial attention during multisensory speech processing under noisy environmental conditions.

Publications

Look who's talking: the deployment of visuo-spatial attention during multisensory speech processing under noisy environmental conditions.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets