Prediction tendency, eye movements, and attention in a unified framework of neural speech tracking

Abstract

Auditory speech comprehension is a multi-faceted process in which attention, prediction, and sensorimotor integration (via active sensing) interact with or complement each other. Although different conceptual models that focus on one of these aspects exist, we still lack a unified understanding of their role in speech processing. Here, we first replicated two recently published studies from our lab, confirming 1) a positive relationship between individual prediction tendencies and neural speech tracking, and 2) the phenomenon of ocular speech tracking - the tracking of attended speech by eye movements - and its shared contribution with neural activity to speech processing. In addition, we extended these findings with complementary analyses and investigated these phenomena in relation to each other in a multi-speaker paradigm with continuous, narrative speech. Importantly, prediction tendency and ocular speech tracking seem to be unrelated. In contrast to the shared contributions of oculomotor and neural activity to speech processing over a distributed set of brain regions that are critical for attention, individual prediction tendency and its relation to neural speech tracking seem to be largely independent of attention. Based on these findings, we propose a framework that aims to bridge the gaps between attention, prediction, and active (ocular) sensing in order to contribute to a holistic understanding of neural speech processing. In this speculative framework for listening, auditory inflow is, on a basic level, temporally modulated via active ocular sensing, and incoming information is interpreted based on probabilistic assumptions.