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Effects of Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment on Cortical Tracking of Speech in Noise
Poster Session D, Saturday, September 13, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, Field House
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Maria Ribeiro1,2, Nicola Molinaro1,3, Manuela Ruzzoli1,3, Emanuelle Ciardo1; 1Basque Center for Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain, 2University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain, 3Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is an often debilitating consequence of cancer and its treatments, affecting domains such as attention, memory, and executive function. While prior research has examined the behavioral and neural underpinnings of CRCI, its impact on real-life communication – particularly in challenging listening environments such as conversations in noise – and its neural correlate, cortical speech tracking, remains underexplored. Cortical tracking of speech, reflecting the brain's ability to synchronize with the temporal dynamics of speech, is crucial for speech comprehension and communication. This is particularly true in noisy environments, where the brain must selectively enhance relevant auditory information while suppressing background noise. Effective speech tracking in noise relies on attentional and predictive mechanisms, which may be compromised in individuals with CRCI, leading to increased listening effort and reduced speech intelligibility. Importantly, visual cues, such as lip movements and facial expressions, have been shown to facilitate the decoding of auditory stimuli under noisy circumstances. We hypothesize that individuals with CRCI exhibiting difficulties in cortical tracking of speech, will show improvements when provided with accompanying visual stimuli. To investigate this, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) responses as part of a longitudinal study involving three groups of participants: (1) breast cancer patients assessed before starting chemotherapy and again at its completion (approximately 4–6 months later); (2) breast cancer patients assessed shortly after completing treatment, and re-evaluated six months later; and (3) age and education-matched healthy controls assessed at baseline and again after six months. During each session, participants listened to brief (1-minute) clips across three conditions – audio-only, video-only, and audiovisual – with background multi-talker noise added to the auditory conditions to increase task difficulty. After each clip, they answered a comprehension question, allowing us to also assess behavioral performance. We then analyzed speech–brain coupling using techniques such as temporal response functions (TRFs) to assess how neural tracking is affected by CRCI. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of CRCI-related changes in neural speech processing, approaching a very ecological scenario in which these patients can show processing difficulties. They may also inform interventions aimed at improving management of symptoms, and recovery in affected individuals.
Topic Areas: Speech Perception,