How the brain turns continuous speech into meaning
Multilevel Auditory Processing of Continuous Speech, from Acoustics to Language
This work maps how different parts of the brain process continuous speech in young people with normal hearing using EEG and MEG recordings.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Univ of Maryland, College Park NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (College Park, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11146554 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would listen to continuous speech while researchers record brain activity with EEG and MEG to capture signals from the brainstem up through language areas. The team will play clear and degraded speech and measure attention and listening effort to see which processing stages lose information and which later stages can compensate. They will compare fast pitch-related signals and slower envelope and linguistic signals across the pathway. Overall, the aim is to connect specific brain responses to how well people understand spoken language.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are young adults with normal hearing who can tolerate EEG and MEG recordings and have no major neurological conditions.
Not a fit: People with severe hearing loss, cochlear implants, very young children, or major neurological disorders may not directly benefit from the findings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could guide better hearing technologies or therapies that target brain mechanisms to improve speech understanding in noisy or degraded listening situations.
How similar studies have performed: Previous EEG and MEG work has mapped speech processing at individual stages, but tracing the full chain from brainstem to language areas in the same people is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
College Park, United States
- Univ of Maryland, College Park — College Park, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Simon, Jonathan Z. — Univ of Maryland, College Park
- Study coordinator: Simon, Jonathan Z.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.