Spectral Correlations in Speaker-Listener Behavior During a Focused Duo Conversation using EEG

Abstract

With computational methods enabling study of cognitive activities in the brain, a common research topic includes identifying complex patterns and correlations relating activity and brain dynamics. Verbal or nonverbal signals that transmitted or received during communication in the brain of a speaker and a listener during their communication can be analyzed with electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The main goal of this study was to analyze speaker-listener synchrony during verbal and nonverbal communication within EEG spectra. Three sets of experiments were performed including one for verbal communication and two for non-verbal communication 5 trials with 8 volunteering subjects were included. Speaker and listener spectra in verbal communication had strong correlations in the anterior frontal lobe of the brain attributed to control functions related to problem solving, memory, language and judgment. Speaker/listener spectra of non-verbal communication suggests enhances differences in neural activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. A synchrony between speaker and listener was noticed in both cases. This correlation study suggests brain-to-brain synchronization was more in alpha and beta rhythms which could be exploited in brain-machine interfaces.