Antoine J. Shahin
OSU Eye and Ear Institute
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Neural influence of prior knowledge on illusory filling-in of degraded speech.
Abstract:
Illusory filling-in of degraded speech, also known as the Continuity Illusion or Phonemic Restoration occurs when an interrupted sound is perceived continuous provided that the missing sound portion is masked by another sound, such as white noise. The strength of illusion is correlated with the level of acoustical information overlap between the missing sound segment and masking entity and the contextual cues (prior knowledge) available. This temporal filling-in illusion
helps maintain robust comprehension in adverse acoustical environments and demonstrates how contextual knowledge can improve speech perception. I will present fMRI and EEG data showing the neural mechanisms of how prior knowledge, specifically lexical cues and meaningful visual information (e.g. lip reading), support the auditory illusory fillingin.
