OBJECTIVE: Conventional, multi-channel scalp electroencephalography (EEG) allows the identification of the attended speaker in concurrent-listening ('cocktail party') scenarios. This implies that EEG might provide valuable information to complement hearing aids with some form of EEG and to install a level of neuro-feedback. APPROACH: To investigate whether a listener's attentional focus can be detected from single-channel hearing-aid-compatible EEG configurations, we recorded EEG from three electrodes inside the ear canal ('in-Ear-EEG') and additionally from 64 electrodes on the scalp. In two different, concurrent listening tasks, participants (n = 7) were fitted with individualized in-Ear-EEG pieces and were either asked to attend to one of two dichotically-presented, concurrent tone streams or to one of two diotically-presented, concurrent audiobooks. A forward encoding model was trained to predict the EEG response at single EEG channels. MAIN RESULTS: Each individual participants' attentional focus could be detected from single-channel EEG response recorded from short-distance configurations consisting only of a single in-Ear-EEG electrode and an adjacent scalp-EEG electrode. The differences in neural responses to attended and ignored stimuli were consistent in morphology (i.e. polarity and latency of components) across subjects. SIGNIFICANCE: In sum, our findings show that the EEG response from a single-channel, hearing-aid-compatible configuration provides valuable information to identify a listener's focus of attention.
OBJECTIVE: Conventional, multi-channel scalp electroencephalography (EEG) allows the identification of the attended speaker in concurrent-listening ('cocktail party') scenarios. This implies that EEG might provide valuable information to complement hearing aids with some form of EEG and to install a level of neuro-feedback. APPROACH: To investigate whether a listener's attentional focus can be detected from single-channel hearing-aid-compatible EEG configurations, we recorded EEG from three electrodes inside the ear canal ('in-Ear-EEG') and additionally from 64 electrodes on the scalp. In two different, concurrent listening tasks, participants (n = 7) were fitted with individualized in-Ear-EEG pieces and were either asked to attend to one of two dichotically-presented, concurrent tone streams or to one of two diotically-presented, concurrent audiobooks. A forward encoding model was trained to predict the EEG response at single EEG channels. MAIN RESULTS: Each individual participants' attentional focus could be detected from single-channel EEG response recorded from short-distance configurations consisting only of a single in-Ear-EEG electrode and an adjacent scalp-EEG electrode. The differences in neural responses to attended and ignored stimuli were consistent in morphology (i.e. polarity and latency of components) across subjects. SIGNIFICANCE: In sum, our findings show that the EEG response from a single-channel, hearing-aid-compatible configuration provides valuable information to identify a listener's focus of attention.
Authors: James O'Sullivan; Zhuo Chen; Jose Herrero; Guy M McKhann; Sameer A Sheth; Ashesh D Mehta; Nima Mesgarani Journal: J Neural Eng Date: 2017-08-04 Impact factor: 5.379
Authors: Blake S Wilson; Debara L Tucci; David A Moses; Edward F Chang; Nancy M Young; Fan-Gang Zeng; Nicholas A Lesica; Andrés M Bur; Hannah Kavookjian; Caroline Mussatto; Joseph Penn; Sara Goodwin; Shannon Kraft; Guanghui Wang; Jonathan M Cohen; Geoffrey S Ginsburg; Geraldine Dawson; Howard W Francis Journal: J Assoc Res Otolaryngol Date: 2022-04-20
Authors: Claire Pelofi; Roberta Bianco; Giovanni M Di Liberto; Prachi Patel; Ashesh D Mehta; Jose L Herrero; Alain de Cheveigné; Shihab Shamma; Nima Mesgarani Journal: Elife Date: 2020-03-03 Impact factor: 8.140
Authors: Jaime Delgado Saa; Andy Christen; Stephanie Martin; Brian N Pasley; Robert T Knight; Anne-Lise Giraud Journal: Sci Rep Date: 2020-05-06 Impact factor: 4.379