Cortical tracking of surprisal during continuous speech comprehension
File(s)WKR-23.pdf (1.76 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Weissbart, Hugo
Reichenbach, Johann
Kandylaki, Katerina
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Speech comprehension requires rapid online processing of a continuous acoustic signal to extract structure and meaning. Previous studies on sentence comprehension have found neural correlates of the predictability of a word given its context, as well as a of the precision of such a prediction. However, they have focussed on single sentences and on particular words in those sentences. Moreover, they compared neural responses to words with low and high predictability, as well as with low and high precision. However, in speech comprehension a listener hears many successive words whose predictability and precision vary over a large range. Here we show that cortical activity in different frequency bands tracks word surprisal in continuous natural speech, and that this tracking is modulated by precision. We obtain these results through quantifying surprisal and precision from naturalistic speech using a deep neural network, and through relating these speech features to electroencephalographic (EEG) responses of human volunteers acquired during auditory story comprehension. We find significant cortical tracking of surprisal at low frequencies including the delta band as well as in the higher-frequency beta and gamma bands, and observe that the tracking is modulated by the precision. Our results pave the way to further investigate the neurobiology of natural speech comprehension.
Date Issued
2020-01
Date Acceptance
2019-08-11
Citation
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2020, 32 (1), pp.155-166
ISSN
0898-929X
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MIT Press)
Start Page
155
End Page
166
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume
32
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Wellcome Trust
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jocn_a_01467
Grant Number
EP/M026728/1
108295/Z/15/Z
EP/R032602/1
Subjects
1109 Neurosciences
1701 Psychology
1702 Cognitive Sciences
Experimental Psychology
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2019-11-29