Recent studies utilizing electrophysiological speech envelope reconstruction have sparked renewed interest in the cocktail party effect by showing that auditory neurons entrain to selectively attended speech. Yet, the neural networks of attention to speech in naturalistic audiovisual settings with multiple sound sources remain poorly understood. We collected functional brain imaging data while participants viewed audiovisual video clips of lifelike dialogues with concurrent distracting speech in the background. Dialogues were presented in a full-factorial design comprising task (listen to the dialogues vs. ignore them), audiovisual quality and semantic predictability. We used univariate analyses in combination with multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to study modulations of brain activity related to attentive processing of audiovisual speech. We found attentive speech processing to cause distinct spatiotemporal modulation profiles in distributed cortical areas including sensory and frontal-control networks. Semantic coherence modulated attention-related activation patterns in the earliest stages of auditory cortical processing, suggesting that the auditory cortex is involved in high-level speech processing. Our results corroborate views that emphasize the dynamic nature of attention, with task-specificity and context as cornerstones of the underlying neuro-cognitive mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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打破鸡尾酒会：大脑视听语音处理的注意调制

最近利用电生理语音包络重建的研究表明听觉神经元会选择性地参与语音，从而重新激发了对鸡尾酒会效应的兴趣。然而，在具有多个声源的自然视听环境中注意语音的神经网络仍然知之甚少。我们收集了功能性大脑成像数据，同时参与者观看了栩栩如生的对话的视听视频剪辑，同时在背景中分散了注意力。对话以全因子设计呈现，包括任务（听对话与忽略对话）、视听质量和语义可预测性。我们使用单变量分析结合多变量模式分析 (MVPA) 来研究与视听语音的专注处理相关的大脑活动的调制。我们发现细心的语音处理会在分布式皮层区域（包括感觉和额叶控制网络）中引起不同的时空调制配置文件。语义连贯性在听觉皮层处理的最早阶段调节了与注意力相关的激活模式，表明听觉皮层参与了高级语音处理。我们的结果证实了强调注意力的动态性质的观点，任务特异性和上下文是潜在神经认知机制的基石。表明听觉皮层参与高级语音处理。我们的结果证实了强调注意力的动态性质的观点，任务特异性和上下文是潜在神经认知机制的基石。表明听觉皮层参与高级语音处理。我们的结果证实了强调注意力的动态性质的观点，任务特异性和背景是潜在神经认知机制的基石。