The Cortical Contribution to the Speech‐Frequency–Following Response Is Not Modulated by Visual Information

Overview

Authors: Jasmin Riegel¹, Alina Schüller¹, Mike Thornton¹, Alexander Wißmann², Steffen Zeiler², Dorothea Kolossa², Tobias Reichenbach¹

Department Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering (AIBE), Friedrich‐Alexander‐Universität Erlangen‐Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
Human‐Centered Information Technologies, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Journal: The European journal of neuroscience, volume 64, issue 5, article e70680

Dates: received 3 February 2026; accepted 1 September 2026; published online 8 September 2026; in print September 2026

Type: Research article · Language: English

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI · PMCID PMC13554471

Status: data only

Categories: cognitive (subfield)

Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Preprocessing, Connectivity, Statistics, Machine learning, Evoked potentials, fMRI & imaging

Keywords: audiovisual speech perception, avatar, speech‐FFR, temporal response function

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 49 references in the paper

Abstract

Seeing a speaker's face can significantly aid understanding, particularly in challenging acoustic environments. An early neural response implicated in audiovisual speech processing is the frequency‐following response (speech‐FFR), which occurs at the fundamental frequency of the speech signal. This response arises from both subcortical areas and the auditory cortex. A previous study showed that subcortical responses to speech can be enhanced when a listener can see the talker's face. Here, we examined the cortical contribution to the speech‐FFR and its potential modulation by visual information, motivated in part by the growing use of artificially generated talking‐face avatars to support speech comprehension. We recorded MEG responses to four types of audiovisual signals: a still image, an artificially generated avatar, a degraded video, and a natural video. The audio stimuli were presented in a substantial level of background noise to make behavioral audiovisual effects stand out. Speech‐in‐noise comprehension increased significantly from the audio‐only condition to the avatar and the degraded video, and further to the natural video. Moreover, we found that all types of audiovisual stimuli yielded robust speech‐FFRs in the auditory cortex at an early latency of around 30 ms. However, the magnitude of this neural response was neither enhanced nor attenuated by the videos, nor could the cortical contribution of the speech‐FFR explain a significant portion of the variance in the behavioral comprehension scores. Our results suggest that visual modulation of the speech‐FFR in the auditory cortex is, if existent, too small to be measurable in scenarios where speech occurs in considerable background noise.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

zenodo:18258659 — at Zenodo; found in “Data Availability Statement”

Data Availability Statement

The data used in this study are available on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/18258659.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 7 authors, 4 keywords, 41 references.

Cite

This paper

Riegel, J., Schüller, A., Thornton, M., Wißmann, A., Zeiler, S., Kolossa, D., & Reichenbach, T. (2026). The Cortical Contribution to the Speech‐Frequency–Following Response Is Not Modulated by Visual Information. The European journal of neuroscience, 64(5), e70680.

BibTeX

@article{riegel2026cortical, author = {Riegel, Jasmin and Schüller, Alina and Thornton, Mike and Wißmann, Alexander and Zeiler, Steffen and Kolossa, Dorothea and Reichenbach, Tobias}, title = {{The Cortical Contribution to the Speech‐Frequency–Following Response Is Not Modulated by Visual Information}}, journal = {The European journal of neuroscience}, year = {2026}, month = sep, volume = {64}, number = {5}, pages = {e70680}, publisher = {Wiley}, issn = {0953-816X}, pmcid = {PMC13554471} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Riegel, Jasmin AU - Schüller, Alina AU - Thornton, Mike AU - Wißmann, Alexander AU - Zeiler, Steffen AU - Kolossa, Dorothea AU - Reichenbach, Tobias TI - The Cortical Contribution to the Speech‐Frequency–Following Response Is Not Modulated by Visual Information T2 - The European journal of neuroscience J2 - Eur J Neurosci PY - 2026 DA - 2026/09/01 VL - 64 IS - 5 SP - e70680 SN - 0953-816X PB - Wiley LA - en ER -

CSL-JSON

{ "id": "pmcid:PMC13554471", "type": "article-journal", "title": "The Cortical Contribution to the Speech‐Frequency–Following Response Is Not Modulated by Visual Information", "container-title": "The European journal of neuroscience", "author": [ { "family": "Riegel", "given": "Jasmin" }, { "family": "Schüller", "given": "Alina" }, { "family": "Thornton", "given": "Mike" }, { "family": "Wißmann", "given": "Alexander" }, { "family": "Zeiler", "given": "Steffen" }, { "family": "Kolossa", "given": "Dorothea" }, { "family": "Reichenbach", "given": "Tobias" } ], "container-title-short": "Eur J Neurosci", "volume": "64", "issue": "5", "page": "e70680", "PMCID": "PMC13554471", "ISSN": "0953-816X", "publisher": "Wiley", "language": "en", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 9, 1 ] ] } }

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Sign in with ORCID to claim this paper as one of its authors, correct its record or validate its tracing map: when the paper's metadata lists your ORCID iD, you are recognized at once. Maintainers of its code: sign in with GitHub, then claim the repository on your account page.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion, reproductions, activity

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.