On the cognitive neurodynamics of listening effort: A phase clustering analysis of large-scale neural correlates

2011 5th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering

Latzel

et al. 2011

Listening in noisy situations demands cognitive effort. Recently, we have shown that the Wavelet Phase Synchronization Stability (WPSS) of Auditory Late Responses (ALRs) represents an objective method to estimate mental load in auditory environments. In literature only a limited number of publications can be found which focus on the effects of noise types and noise onset effects using syllable evoked ALRs. The objective of the present work was to analyze the influence of different parameters, like white and babble noise as well as different noise onset times 50, 300, 1000ms and continuous noise conditions, on syllable evoked ALRs. Also, the analysis of the WPSS, as used in previous work, has never been applied to see such effects on the ALRs. We found that noise onset times of 300ms or larger showed a good separation of the ALR components. Furthermore, the analysis of the WPSS for different scales showed a clear identification of the N1 components. However, the best type of noise, and noise onset configuration depends on the specific application. For investigations related to auditory processing of speech, ecological noises are preferred because they could be used to mimic everyday listening situations.978-1-4244-4141-9/11/$25.00 ©2011 IEEE

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Syllable evoked auditory late responses: Effects of noise onsets and noise types

Corona-Strauss

2011 5th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering

Latzel

et al. 2011

“…The wavelet used in this study was the 4th-derivative of the complex Gaussian function, as in [5], [6], [7], [12].…”

Section: E Synchronization Stability and Listening Effortmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…noise reduction algorithms, but an objective adaption of the hearing aids to the individual needs remains an unsolved problem. In previous studies [5], [6], [7], we have shown a possible method to extract neural correlates of listening effort by using tonal and babble noise embedded syllabic paradigms. This method is based on the instantaneous phase information of auditory late responses (ALRs), which is needed to calculate the wavelet phase synchronization stability (WPSS).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of age and hearing impairment on the extraction of listening effort correlates

2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society

Strauß

Hannemann

et al. 2011

Self Cite

In clinical practice, an objective method to assess listening effort is still not available. The benefit of such a measure would be to reduce the listening effort in hearing impaired persons by an adequate adaption of their personal hearing aids. In foregoing studies, we have shown that the wavelet phase synchronization stability (WPSS) of auditory late responses (ALRs) could serve as a feasible measure of listening effort. Here, tonal and noise embedded syllabic paradigms were employed to achieve ALR sequences in normal hearing subjects. The aims of this ongoing study were 1) to extract the WPSS of ALR sequences in hearing impaired persons, middle-aged normal hearing persons and younger normal hearing subjects, 2) to investigate possible age-related influences on the WPSS and 3) to examine a feasible influence of the hearing loss on the WPSS. It is concluded, that the WPSS of ALR sequences can be extracted in normal hearing as well as in hearing impaired persons. An age related effect regarding the WPSS was not noticeable and the intergroup comparison of the difference of the WPSS showed a tendency to be larger for the hearing impaired compared to the normal hearing middle-aged subjects. The latest can be interpreted that this subject group showed a larger effort to solve the auditory paradigms.

Auditory streaming and listening effort: An event related potential study

2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology

Corona-Strauss

Latzel

et al. 2010

Until now, an objective method to estimate listening effort with a minimum level of cooperation of the patient in order to fit hearing aids is not existent. The benefit of such a method would be to reduce the listening effort in hearing impaired persons by an adequate adaption of the hearing aids. Recently, we have shown that the wavelet phase synchronization stability (WPSS) of auditory late responses could serve as a measure to estimate listening effort. In this paper, we extend our previous studies by using for the first time syllable stimulation paradigms with two levels of difficulty due to the combination of the syllables. Furthermore, by taking the model of auditory stream selection into account, the complexity of the paradigms was enhanced by the generation of a second competing auditory stream beside the syllable stream. This stream consisted of multitalker babble noise at two different signal to noise ratios in order to mimic noisy environments. The data was collected from a total of 21 normal hearing subjects, who had always to detect a target syllable. It is concluded, that the WPSS is a robust measure to perceive differences between the effort needed to solve a task in an easy and a difficult listening condition. However, a further research will be to test hearing impaired persons to prove, if this electrophysiological method could be applied to improve the hearing aid fitting procedures in clinical settings.