Graduate Student Seminar Series – Filip Miscevic

Graduate Student Seminar Series
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Location: MS2158 – 1 King’s College Circle
Presentation Title: A Novel Naturalistic Dual-Task Ear Training Paradigm with Real-time Multimodal Gamified Neurofeedback for Cochlear Implant Users
Abstract: Cochlear implants (CIs) are the oldest and most widely used neural prosthetic, but CI users experience listening fatigue more readily than normal-hearing individuals. This can discourage consistent CI usage and lead to a reduced quality of life. Previous work has shown that ear-training tasks can improve real-world listening outcomes, but have relied on tedious, contrived stimuli such as strings of numbers or words. Our aim is to develop a fun, engaging listening task that simulates the demands of a real-world listening environment using episodes of a TV show, and to provide game-like rewards for good listening performance derived from real-time electroencephalography (EEG). In the task we have developed, subjects must follow a target audiovisual stimulus (an episode from a TV show) while ignoring a distractor as it alternates between their left and right sides at cued intervals. A multivariate temporal response function (mTRF) is used to generate a reconstruction of the perceived stimulus from the EEG signal, which can then be compared with the ground-truth attend stimulus. If the two are highly correlated, the participant is rewarded with a star animation, encouraging further progress. A pilot study of ten participants demonstrated greater neural tracking of the target stimulus (mean Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.13 vs. 0.09, p<0.01) and better suppression of the ignored stimulus, suggesting that our novel task is better suited for ear-training than the traditional version of the task. Our task may help train CI listening ability in a fun, engaging way, which may translate to better real-world listening abilities and an improved quality of life.
Supervisor Name: Luka Milosevic
Year of Study: 3
Program of Study: PhD
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