How vibrotactile speech input can enhance speech intelligibility and the exploration of its neural correlates
Alina Schulte
Eriksholm Research Center, Denmark
Hannover Medical School, Germany

Abstract: Vibrotactile stimulation has been found to benefit both normal-hearing individuals and cochlear implant users in improving speech intelligibility. Our work replicates this finding and suggests that the effect is not purely driven by enhanced attention toward the auditory stimulus, but indeed, the informational content of the tactile signal plays a role in the outcome of speech intelligibility. This suggests that the human brain is able to integrate both sensory stimuli into a unified speech percept. To test this hypothesis and how the tactile signal may influence unimodal speech processing, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy. I will present our behavioral findings and provide insights into my journey towards uncovering the neural correlates of audio-tactile speech perception.

Date: Thursday 16 November 2023
Time: 09:00-10:00
Location: W4.002 (Dormitorium), UMCG
Link: https://meet.google.com/jvj-byon-uhe

For information and to sign up for the e-mail list please contact drs. Karen Castaño González, k.castano.gonzalez@umcg.nl