Our research will reveal the brain mechanisms involved in such situations using a combination of brain research methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). We will vary attentional load (the similarity of an irrelevant voice to a concurrent attended voice), perceptual load (intelligibility of the attended speech), the amount of visual speech information (attended speakers facial movements), and semantic predictability in the attended speech passages. In addition to conventional data analysis, we will use novel methods (multivariate pattern analysis) in analyzing brain imaging data to elucidate the functional properties of attention and speech processing networks in the human brain.
This research is supported by the Academy of Finland (grant #297848, “Modulations of brain activity patterns during selective attention to speech”, 2016-2020).