Inference of the Selective Auditory Attention using Sequential LMMSE Estimation

Kuruvila I, Demir KC, Fischer E, Hoppe U (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering

DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2021.3075337

Abstract

Attentive listening in a multispeaker environment such as a cocktail party requires suppression of the interfering speakers and the noise around. People with normal hearing perform remarkably well in such situations. Analysis of the cortical signals using electroencephalography (EEG) has revealed that the EEG signals track the envelope of the attended speech stronger than that of the interfering speech. This has enabled the development of algorithms that can decode the selective attention of a listener in controlled experimental settings. However, often these algorithms require longer trial duration and computationally expensive calibration to obtain a reliable inference of attention. In this paper, we present a novel framework to decode the attention of a listener within trial durations of the order of two seconds. It comprises of three modules: 1) Dynamic estimation of the temporal response functions (TRF) in every trial using a sequential linear minimum mean squared error (LMMSE) estimator, 2) Extract the N1-P2 peak of the estimated TRF that serves as a marker related to the attentional state and 3) Obtain a probabilistic measure of the attentional state using a support vector machine followed by a logistic regression. The efficacy of the proposed decoding framework was evaluated using EEG data collected from 27 subjects. The total number of electrodes required to infer the attention was four: One for the signal estimation, one for the noise estimation and the other two being the reference and the ground electrodes. Our results make further progress towards the realization of neuro-steered hearing aids.

Authors with CRIS profile

Ivine Kuruvila Professur für Audiologie Kubilay Can Demir Lehrstuhl für Informatik 5 (Mustererkennung) Ulrich Hoppe Professur für Audiologie

Involved external institutions

WS Audiology DK Denmark (DK)

How to cite

APA:

Kuruvila, I., Demir, K.C., Fischer, E., & Hoppe, U. (2021). Inference of the Selective Auditory Attention using Sequential LMMSE Estimation. IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2021.3075337

MLA:

Kuruvila, Ivine, et al. "Inference of the Selective Auditory Attention using Sequential LMMSE Estimation." IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering (2021).

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