An exploratory Study of EEG Alpha Oscillation and Pupil Dilation in Hearing-Aid Users During Effortful listening to Continuous Speech
An exploratory Study of EEG Alpha Oscillation and Pupil Dilation in Hearing-Aid Users During Effortful listening to Continuous Speech
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0235782
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发表时间：
2020-07-10
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Lunner, Thomas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ala, Tirdad Seifi;Graversen, Carina;Lunner, Thomas
听力损失患者分配认知资源来理解日常生活场景中的嘈杂语音。这种情况可能是当他们接触到正在进行的讲话，并需要保持他们的注意力相当长的一段时间，这需要倾听的努力。瞳孔测量法和脑电图（EEG）是两种公认的生理学方法，已被发现对识别听力努力的变化很敏感。然而，这些测量主要用于瞬时的、诱发的或偶发的努力。本研究的目的是使用具有不同信噪比（SNR）的连续语音来研究持续的努力如何在瞳孔测量和EEG中表现出来。八个助听器用户参加了这项探索性研究，并进行了连续的语音噪声任务。语音材料由30秒连续流组成，其在存在4个讲话者背景噪声（+180度方位角）的情况下从扬声器呈现到收听者的右侧和左侧（+/-30度方位角）。参与者被指示以两种不同SNR条件的随机顺序关注右侧或左侧说话者，并忽略另一个：0 dB和-5 dB（目标和竞争说话者之间的差异）。通过瞳孔测量和脑电图客观地探讨了信噪比对听努力的影响。结果显示，在更努力的条件下，顶叶的平均瞳孔扩张更大，EEG α功率降低。这项研究表明，这两种措施是敏感的连续语音过程中的SNR的变化。
Individuals with hearing loss allocate cognitive resources to comprehend noisy speech in everyday life scenarios. Such a scenario could be when they are exposed to ongoing speech and need to sustain their attention for a rather long period of time, which requires listening effort. Two well-established physiological methods that have been found to be sensitive to identify changes in listening effort are pupillometry and electroencephalography (EEG). However, these measurements have been used mainly for momentary, evoked or episodic effort. The aim of this study was to investigate how sustained effort manifests in pupillometry and EEG, using continuous speech with varying signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Eight hearing-aid users participated in this exploratory study and performed a continuous speech-in-noise task. The speech material consisted of 30-second continuous streams that were presented from loudspeakers to the right and left side of the listener (+/- 30 degrees azimuth) in the presence of 4-talker background noise (+180 degrees azimuth). The participants were instructed to attend either to the right or left speaker and ignore the other in a randomized order with two different SNR conditions: 0 dB and -5 dB (the difference between the target and the competing talker). The effects of SNR on listening effort were explored objectively using pupillometry and EEG. The results showed larger mean pupil dilation and decreased EEG alpha power in the parietal lobe during the more effortful condition. This study demonstrates that both measures are sensitive to changes in SNR during continuous speech.