Evaluating objective methods in terms of neural resources in the evaluation of listening effort

It is still not fully explained what kind of neural sources the methods used in the assessment of listening effort are more sensitive to and how these measurement results are related to each other. The simultaneous implementation of listening effort assessment methods is very important in order to ensure that the participant is at the same motivation and neural resource level. The aim of this study is to determine which neural resources required for listening effort are more sensitive, under the control of individual cognitive and auditory processing skills, by using differently distorted speech stimuli and objective methods used in the measurement of listening effort. 49 individuals between the ages of 19-34 with normal hearing participated in the study. The study was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, simultaneous pupillometry, EEG and reaction time measurements were made during the challenging listening and repetition task with the impaired speech stimulus (noise vocoded speech). In the second stage, at the same time of the day and at the same level of fatigue as the first stage; Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Turkish Matrix Test and Listening Attention Test were applied. TAIL results are more correlated with pupillometry results, while AVLT results are associated with EEG alpha band amplitude change. While pupil dilatation increased as the stimulus difficulty increased, it was not compatible with EEG results. This study, in which simultaneous listening effort was evaluated, was the first study to evaluate the relationship between auditory attention and memory with effort. Keywords: Listening Effort, Electroencephalography, Pupillometry, Auditory Attention, Verbal Working Memory