Neural tracking to go: auditory attention decoding and saliency detection with mobile EEG
Objective. Neuro-steered assistive technologies have been suggested to offer a major advancement in
future devices like neuro-steered hearing aids. Auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods would in
that case allow for identification of an attended speaker within complex auditory environments,
exclusively from neural data. Decoding the attended speaker using neural information has so far only
been done in controlled laboratory settings. Yet, it is known that ever-present factors like
distraction and movement are reflected in the neural signal parameters related to attention.
Approach. Thus, in the current study we applied a two-competing speaker paradigm to investigate
performance of a commonly applied electroencephalography-based AAD model outside of the laboratory
during leisure walking and distraction. Unique environmental sounds were added to the auditory scene
and served as distractor events. Main results . The current study shows, for the first time, t...