General Auditory and Speech-Specific Contributions to Cortical Envelope Tracking Revealed Using Auditory Chimeras

In recent years research on natural speech processing has benefited from recognizing that low-frequency cortical activity tracks the amplitude envelope of natural speech. However, it remains unclear to what extent this tracking reflects speech-specific processing beyond the analysis of the stimulus acoustics. In the present study, we aimed to disentangle contributions to cortical envelope tracking that reflect general acoustic processing from those that are functionally related to processing speech. To do so, we recorded EEG from subjects as they listened to auditory chimeras, stimuli composed of the temporal fine structure of one speech stimulus modulated by the amplitude envelope (ENV) of another speech stimulus. By varying the number of frequency bands used in making the chimeras, we obtained some control over which speech stimulus was recognized by the listener. No matter which stimulus was recognized, envelope tracking was always strongest for the ENV stimulus, indicating a dominant contribution from acoustic processing. However, there was also a positive relationship between intelligibility and the tracking of the perceived speech, indicating a contribution from speech-specific processing. These findings were supported by a follow-up analysis that assessed envelope tracking as a function of the (estimated) output of the cochlea rather than the original stimuli used in creating the chimeras. Finally, we sought to isolate the speech-specific contribution to envelope tracking using forward encoding models and found that indices of phonetic feature processing tracked reliably with intelligibility. Together these results show that cortical speech tracking is dominated by acoustic processing but also reflects speech-specific processing. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Activity in auditory cortex is known to dynamically track the energy fluctuations, or amplitude envelope, of speech. Measures of this tracking are now widely used in research on hearing and language and have had a substantial influence on theories of how auditory cortex parses and processes speech. But how much of this speech tracking is actually driven by speech-specific processing rather than general acoustic processing is unclear, limiting its interpretability and its usefulness. Here, by merging two speech stimuli together to form so-called auditory chimeras, we show that EEG tracking of the speech envelope is dominated by acoustic processing but also reflects linguistic analysis. This has important implications for theories of cortical speech tracking and for using measures of that tracking in applied research.