Biology subjects

Blache, P.

Publications and source records attributed to Blache, P..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

A dual EEG hyperscanning dataset of natural French face-to-face conversation

Conversation is a fundamental human behaviour that requires rapid coordination between speaking, listening, and turn-taking, yet datasets capturing its neural dynamics in natural interaction remain scarce. Hyperscanning EEG is particularly valuable for this purpose because it records both interlocutors simultaneously, enabling the study of speaker-listener coupling, response timing, and dyadic coordination during live exchange. Here we present DUET (Dyadic Understanding, EEG and Turn-taking), a hyperscanning dataset for studying natural French face-to-face conversation. The dataset comprises recordings from 18 dyads, or 36 French-speaking adults, performing the Diapix collaborative spot-the-difference task across eight 4-minute face-to-face conversation blocks. For each participant, EEG was recorded from 36 participants; most recordings used 64-channel EEG, with one pilot dyad recorded using 32 electrodes. The public release includes raw EEG recordings, precomputed ICA decompositions for reuse in downstream preprocessing as well as various features derived from the audio and manually corrected transcripts.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Neural Tracking of Linguistic Predictors in Spontaneous Conversational Speech

This study investigates whether neural tracking of linguistic information extends from read speech to spontaneous conversation. Using the temporal response function (TRF) framework, we validate our approach on a read-speech EEG dataset and then apply it to EEG recordings from natural conversations. We observe reliable neural tracking of key linguistic predictors, including word onset, part-of-speech surprisal, and lexical surprisal, in spontaneous speech, with effects around 200, 400, and 600 ms. These results provide new evidence that linguistic neural tracking operates in natural conversational settings and confirm the feasibility of EEG studies in ecologically valid contexts.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Two Interacting Neural Processes Support Speech Planning during Naturalistic Conversation

Conversation requires speakers to plan their responses while still listening to their partner, yet the neural dynamics supporting this overlap remain unclear. In particular, competing accounts differ on whether behaviourally relevant preparation emerges early during comprehension or only close to speech onset. Here, we recorded EEG from pairs of participants engaged in natural, face-to-face conversation and tested whether neural activity during listening predicts both when speakers begin their response (latency) and how long they speak (duration). Using event-related potentials, oscillatory analyses, and multivariate decoding, we show that pre-speech neural activity carries robust information about upcoming behaviour more than one second before articulation. The strongest and earliest effects tracked response duration, with sustained ERP components and alpha/beta power modulations predicting how long participants would speak, even after controlling for behavioural variables. In contrast, neural predictors of response latency were more temporally restricted and partly aligned with partner turn boundaries. Temporal generalisation analyses further revealed stable neural patterns linking early and late stages of preparation. Together, these findings indicate that conversational planning unfolds during listening and that early neural activity reflects the maintained specification of response extent, followed by later processes related to commitment and initiation. This supports a temporally structured account of turn taking in which preparation involves both early maintenance and late motor engagement.

neuroscience↗