Enhanced neural speech tracking through noise indicates stochastic resonance in humans.

ABSTRACT: Neural activity in auditory cortex tracks the amplitude-onset envelope of continuous speech, but recent work counterintuitively suggests that neural tracking increases when speech is masked by background noise, despite reduced speech intelligibility. Noise-related amplification could indicate that stochastic resonance - the response facilitation through noise - supports neural speech tracking, but a comprehensive account is lacking. In five human electroencephalography experiments, the current study demonstrates a generalized enhancement of neural speech tracking due to minimal background noise. Results show that (1) neural speech tracking is enhanced for speech masked by background noise at very high signal-to-noise ratios (~30 dB SNR) where speech is highly intelligible; (2) this enhance

SUBMITTER: Herrmann B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11919254 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature