Subjective Listening Tests and Neural Correlates of Speech Degradation in Case of Signal-Correlated Noise

In this paper, we examine whether particularly sensitivity of the human cortex to reduction in speech quality is visible in the electroencephalogram (EEG) and whether these measures can be used to improve the behavioral assessment of speech quality. We degraded a speech stimulus (vowel /a/) in a scalable way and asked for a behavioural rating. In addition, the brain activity was measured with EEG. We trained classifiers, which were found capable of distinguishing between events which are seemingly similar at the behavioral level (i.e., no button press), neurally, however, noise contamination is detected, possibly affecting the long-term contentment with the transmission quality.