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The impact of vibrotactile stimulation on the neural tracking of speech

par Rautu, Ioana-Sabina ;Bertels, Julie ;Bourguignon, Mathieu ;Jousmäki, Veikko;De Tiege, Xavier
Référence Salzburg Mind Brain Annual Meeting (SAMBA) (11-12 July 2024: Salzburg, Austria)
Publication A Paraître, 2024-07-11

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Résumé :

In the current study, we investigated whether vibrotactile stimulation derived from the speech temporal envelope can facilitate the neural tracking of speech in normal hearing listeners. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) activity from 30 French-speaking participants was recorded while they attended to videos of native French speakers reciting stories with neutral content. The heard audio was presented either in silence or embedded in multi-talker noise, with (Audiotactile [AT] condition) or without (Audio-only [A] condtion) vibrotactile stimulation. During the AT conditions, vibrotactile envelope-based stimulation was delivered to the participants’ left palm either congruently (i.e. in synchrony) or incongruently with the speech signal of the attended speaker. Neural tracking was then assessed per condition using speech-brain coherence at the phrasal and syllabic levels (0.2 – 1.5 Hz and 2 – 8 Hz, respectively). Results indicate a robust enhancing effect of the congruent vibrotactile stimulation on the neural tracking of speech. This vibrotactile benefit was present at the syllabic-level tracking, and was significantly more pronounced in the right hemisphere. Moreover, the effect of vibrotactile input was particularly enhanced under noise conditions. Contrastingly, no effect of the vibrotactile stimulation was found on the neural tracking of speech at the phrasal level. Vibrotactile input also impacted behavioral performance, with comprehension in noise being significantly improved by congruent vibrotactile input compared with audio-only or incongruent vibrotactile conditions. This study provides novel insights into the mechanisms of proven haptic enhancement of speech comprehension in silent and noisy auditory conditions. As such, this offers potential implications in the design of haptic auditory devices.