Abstract
Several solutions have been proposed to study the relationship between ongoing brain activity and natural sensory stimuli, such as running speech. Computing the intersubject correlation (ISC) has been proposed as one possible approach. Previous evidence suggests that ISCs between the participants’ electroencephalogram (EEG) may be modulated by attention. The current study addressed this question in a competing-speaker paradigm, where participants (N = 41) had to attend to one of two concurrently presented speech streams. ISCs between participants’ EEG were higher for participants attending to the same story compared to participants attending to different stories. Furthermore, we found that ISCs between individual and group data predicted whether an individual attended to the left or right speech stream. Interestingly, the magnitude of the shared neural response with others attending to the same story was related to the individual neural representation of the attended and ignored speech envelope. Overall, our findings indicate that ISC differences reflect the magnitude of selective attentional engagement to speech.
Highlights
The effects of attention on the neural processing of the human brain are typically studied with discrete and highly controlled stimuli
We here evaluated whether selective auditory attention in the attended speaker paradigm affects the neural reliability between individuals, as measured by intersubject correlation (ISC)
We confirmed the previously reported selective attention effect on speech envelope tracking. This selective attention effect was positively correlated with ISCsame scores
Summary
The effects of attention on the neural processing of the human brain are typically studied with discrete and highly controlled stimuli. Over the past few years several methods have been developed to study how the brain deals with the complexity and dynamics of running speech (Hamilton and Huth, 2020). One such method is the intersubject correlation (ISC) which calculates the correlation across participants’ brain signals to assess the reliability of the brain response between participants. While discrete stimuli require repeated presentation to acquire a reliable response (Luck, 2014), ISC has the Attention Effect on EEG-Based ISC advantage that a single exposure of the same continuous stimulus to each participant is sufficient to produce a measurable brain response across participants
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
