Comparison of electroencephalography technologies on neural speech tracking in quiet and competing speech

Abstract

Speech perception with competing talkers can be a major challenge, especially for listeners with hearing loss. Listeners use auditory grouping cues to selectively attend to speech of interest and ignore the irrelevant signals, and recent work has shown that neural measures can reveal this ability to follow speech in complex acoustic environments. In most cases, prior studies have used research-grade, high-density electroencephalography (EEG) equipment to demonstrate this phenomenon; however, there are economic and clinical barriers for using these systems that may be overcome with open-source systems. The present study investigated the functional benefits and uses of low-density, dry EEG technology as an affordable and useful alternative to research-grade wet caps in neural speech tracking designs. This study was performed in normal hearing listeners with both systems for direct comparison. Experiment 1 looked at neural speech tracking in quiet, and experiment 2 investigated neural speech tracking with competing speech streams. The present study provides a comprehensive assessment of a research-grade system with wet electrodes compared to an open-source system with dry electrodes, which may provide clearer implications for future advancements in real-world application, such as “neuro-steered” hearing devices.