Inaccurate cortical tracking of speech in adults with impaired speech perception in noise
Data
2021Egilea
Vander Ghinst, Marc
Bourguignon, Mathieu
Wens, Vincent
Naeije, Gilles
Ducène, Cecile
Niesen, Maxime
Hassid, Sergio
Choufani, Georges
Goldman, Serge
De Tiège, Xavier
Marc Vander Ghinst, Mathieu Bourguignon, Vincent Wens, Gilles Naeije, Cecile Ducène, Maxime Niesen, Sergio Hassid, Georges Choufani, Serge Goldman, Xavier De Tiège, Inaccurate cortical tracking of speech in adults with impaired speech perception in noise, Brain Communications, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2021, fcab186, https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab186
Laburpena
Impaired speech perception in noise despite normal peripheral auditory function is a common problem in young adults. Despite a growing
body of research, the pathophysiology of this impairment remains unknown. This magnetoencephalography study characterizes the cortical
tracking of speech in a multi-talker background in a group of highly selected adult subjects with impaired speech perception in noise
without peripheral auditory dysfunction. Magnetoencephalographic signals were recorded from 13 subjects with impaired speech perception
in noise (six females, mean age: 30 years) and matched healthy subjects while they were listening to 5 different recordings of stories
merged with a multi-talker background at different signal to noise ratios (No Noise, þ10, þ5, 0 and 5dB). The cortical tracking of
speech was quantified with coherence between magnetoencephalographic signals and the temporal envelope of (i) the global auditory scene
(i.e. the attended speech stream and the multi-talker background noise), (ii) the attended speech stream only and (iii) the multi-talker background
noise. Functional connectivity was then estimated between brain areas showing altered cortical tracking of speech in noise in subjects
with impaired speech perception in noise and the rest of the brain. All participants demonstrated a selective cortical representation of
the attended speech stream in noisy conditions, but subjects with impaired speech perception in noise displayed reduced cortical tracking
of speech at the syllable rate (i.e. 4–8Hz) in all noisy conditions. Increased functional connectivity was observed in subjects with impaired
speech perception in noise in Noiseless and speech in noise conditions between supratemporal auditory cortices and left-dominant brain
areas involved in semantic and attention processes. The difficulty to understand speech in a multi-talker background in subjects with
impaired speech perception in noise appears to be related to an inaccurate auditory cortex tracking of speech at the syllable rate. The
increased functional connectivity between supratemporal auditory cortices and language/attention-related neocortical areas probably aims
at supporting speech perception and subsequent recognition in adverse auditory scenes. Overall, this study argues for a central origin of
impaired speech perception in noise in the absence of any peripheral auditory dysfunction.