Mapping the neural bases of listening effort using high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT)

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The quality of speech signals and the inherent contextual cues are essential for effective spoken communication. Our research aims to identify the neural basis of effortful listening for speech altered in linguistic complexity and acoustic clarity. We leverage the strength of HD-DOT to measure cortical responses due to naturalistic stimuli such as stories. Comparisons of stimulus complexity (words vs. stories) and clarity (clear vs. acoustically degraded stories) for seven young adult participants show the recruitment of higher-order brain regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex for the more effortful conditions, suggesting the involvement of domain-general processing.