Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School and Cluster of Excellence 'Hearing4all', Hanover, Germany.
J Neural Eng. 2022 Feb 10;19(1). doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ac4de6.
. Focusing attention on one speaker in a situation with multiple background speakers or noise is referred to as auditory selective attention. Decoding selective attention is an interesting line of research with respect to future brain-guided hearing aids or cochlear implants (CIs) that are designed to adaptively adjust sound processing through cortical feedback loops. This study investigates the feasibility of using the electrodes and backward telemetry of a CI to record electroencephalography (EEG).The study population included six normal-hearing (NH) listeners and five CI users with contralateral acoustic hearing. Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEP) and selective attention were recorded using a state-of-the-art high-density scalp EEG and, in the case of CI users, also using two CI electrodes as sensors in combination with the backward telemetry system of these devices, denoted as implant-based EEG (iEEG).. In the selective attention paradigm with multi-channel scalp EEG the mean decoding accuracy across subjects was 94.8% and 94.6% for NH listeners and CI users, respectively. With single-channel scalp EEG the accuracy dropped but was above chance level in 8-9 out of 11 subjects, depending on the electrode montage. With the single-channel iEEG, the selective attention decoding accuracy could only be analyzed in two out of five CI users due to a loss of data in the other three subjects. In these two CI users, the selective attention decoding accuracy was above chance level.. This study shows that single-channel EEG is suitable for auditory selective attention decoding, even though it reduces the decoding quality compared to a multi-channel approach. CI-based iEEG can be used for the purpose of recording CAEPs and decoding selective attention. However, the study also points out the need for further technical development for the CI backward telemetry regarding long-term recordings and the optimal sensor positions.
. 在存在多个背景说话者或噪声的情况下，将注意力集中在一个说话者上被称为听觉选择性注意。解码选择性注意是一个有趣的研究方向，涉及未来的大脑引导的助听器或人工耳蜗 (CI)，旨在通过皮质反馈环自适应地调整声音处理。本研究调查了使用 CI 的电极和后向遥测记录脑电图 (EEG) 的可行性。研究对象包括 6 名正常听力 (NH) 听众和 5 名具有对侧听觉的 CI 用户。使用最先进的高密度头皮 EEG 记录皮质听觉诱发电位 (CAEP) 和选择性注意，并且在 CI 用户的情况下，还使用两个 CI 电极作为传感器与这些设备的后向遥测系统结合使用，称为基于植入物的 EEG (iEEG)。在具有多通道头皮 EEG 的选择性注意范式中，NH 听众和 CI 用户的平均解码准确率分别为 94.8%和 94.6%。使用单通道头皮 EEG，准确率下降，但在 11 名受试者中的 8-9 名中仍高于机会水平，具体取决于电极布局。在单通道 iEEG 中，由于另外三名受试者的数据丢失，仅在五名 CI 用户中的两名用户中可以分析选择性注意解码准确性。在这两名 CI 用户中，选择性注意解码准确性高于机会水平。. 本研究表明，即使与多通道方法相比，单通道 EEG 也适合听觉选择性注意解码。基于 CI 的 iEEG 可用于记录 CAEPs 和解码选择性注意。然而，该研究还指出需要进一步开发 CI 后向遥测技术，以实现长期记录和最佳传感器位置。
