I will present the work that results from my PhD Thesis entitled “Cortical Auditory Attention Decoding for Music Listening: Performance and Differences with Speech Listening”. Cortical auditory attention decoders (AAD) aim to determine the sound a listener is paying attention to from the analysis of their neural response during listening. Embedded into audio devices, AAD could help to adapt the sound scene to the listener’s need, reduce annoyance from unwanted noise and enhance the quality of the listening experience. 

My research focuses on AAD designed using linear modelling to reconstruct the envelope of the sound of interest from electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. This project's main goal was to investigate AAD's performance during listening in the presence of distracting sound and how the performance differs between speech and music listening. The modelling approach was also used to explore the differences in the underlying cortical mechanisms during music and speech listening. Through two experiments, the results suggest that while cortical processes involved in listening differ according to the type of sound, AAD could be used for both speech and music listening. 

The presentation will include an introduction on listening in presence of distracting sounds and auditory attention decoding, as well as the motivations, methods, and results of my research in this field.