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Sketchpad Series

Neural correlates of predictive speech processing in noise

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Tugba Lulaci¹ (tugba.lulaci@ling.lu.se), Pelle Söderström^1,2, Mikael Roll¹; ¹Lund University, ²The National Acoustic Laboratories, Sydney, Australia

The processes underlying speech perception in the brain are still largely unknown. Rapid perception of speech requires efficient processing, and one of the largest challenges in perception is keeping up with the changing nature of signal, particularly in adverse listening conditions. Prediction is thought to be a mechanism that helps listeners anticipate upcoming acoustic information to cope with noise and ambiguity. This ongoing study investigates how varying levels of noise affect auditory predictions by examining event-related potentials elicited by matched and mismatched Swedish prosodic cues in clear speech and at different speech-shaped noise levels, offering new insights into the interaction between prosody, prediction, and adverse listening conditions. Native Central Swedish speakers between 18-40 years participated in the study. Participants had no neurological disorders and had normal hearing thresholds (250–8000 Hz). They listened to sentences presented in three conditions: no noise, 0 dB SNR and -5 dB SNR. Sentences were presented in matched -correct accent and suffix- and mismatched -cross-spliced accent and suffix- conditions and the participants were asked to choose if the sentence object they have heard was plural or singular. EEG data were collected using a 64-channel system, and ERP analyses focused on components linked to predictive mechanisms. Swedish word accents are known to reliably elicit predictive processing, and mismatched suffixes, increased prediction error. This research will contribute to understanding how noise impacts auditory predictive processing, focusing on the role of sentence and prosodic cues in facilitating speech comprehension. Ongoing analyses are refining the findings and assessing group-level effects.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition