# Effect of mild cognitive impairment and listening effort demands on cortical processing of narrative speech

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2024 · $189,577

## Abstract

Speech understanding is a key function of human audition with important roles in learning, professional, and
social functions. Ageing is associated with increased difficulties with speech recognition, particularly in noisy
backgrounds, even in the absence of clinical hearing loss. A growing body of work has identified increased
compensatory use of cognitive resources, collectively known as listening effort (LE), as a key change within the
ageing and hearing-impaired populations. Additionally, individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), whose cognitive deficits compromise their ability to efficiently utilize LE mechanisms
for coping with distracting information, exhibit substantial deficits in perception of speech in the presence of
competing talkers. However, the neural underpinnings of these behavioral deficits in MCI remain poorly
understood, including the relative extent to which neurobiological changes in the brain due to AD affect lower-
level processing of speech acoustics versus higher-level mechanisms involved in linguistic processing.
Moreover, because cortical processing of continuous speech in people with MCI due to AD has been virtually
unexplored, it is unknown whether such measures could have utility as a neural biomarker for early, affordable
diagnostics of AD, as well as for tracking of AD progression. The present proposal aims to address both of these
key goals by collecting the first data set of continuous speech processing under varying listening effort demands
in people with MCI due to AD and matched controls. In Aim 1, we will address the question of how neurobiological
changes due to AD influence cortical processing of acoustic and linguistic features of speech in MCI. In a sample
of participants with MCI due to AD with AD biomarkers, as well as matched controls, we will measure non-
invasive electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to continuous narrative audiobooks presented either in
isolation (Low LE condition) or dichotically in the presence of a distracting secondary audiobook (High LE
condition). Model-based temporal response function (TRF) analyses will subsequently be used to derive
responses to a range of acoustic and linguistic features of speech to assess how MCI status and LE demands
interact in cortical processing of speech. In Aim 2, we will test whether cortical responses to speech can be
reliably used to, 1), classify the MCI (vs. control) status of individual participants, and 2), predict speech
comprehension performance and scores on cognitive battery tests (e.g., working memory capacity, attentional
inhibition scores). These goals will be achieved by building cross-validated classification and regression models
to identify which features (acoustics vs. linguistic), conditions (clean vs dichotic speech), and types of neural
measures (e.g., feature tracking strength vs. response latencies) are most reliable for classifying MCI status and
predicting behavioral scores. This w...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10936958
- **Project number:** 3R21DC020788-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Juraj Mesik
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $189,577
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-09-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10936958

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10936958, Effect of mild cognitive impairment and listening effort demands on cortical processing of narrative speech (3R21DC020788-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10936958. Licensed CC0.

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