Researchers from the Brainlab have published a new research paper in Hearing Research examining how the human brain encodes speech in noisy environments.

The paper, conducted as part of Giannina Puddu-Gallardo‘s doctoral thesis and led by PI Marc Via, explores the role of the Frequency-Following Response (FFR) as a neural biomarker of speech-in-noise (SIN) processing. The FFR closely reflects the spectro-temporal features of speech and has been widely proposed as an objective index of auditory function.

Neural responses were recorded in 116 healthy young adults while listening to a two-vowel /oa/ syllable presented in quiet and in background noise, together with behavioral measures of SIN perception. The results show that noise enhances envelope encoding—particularly of the fundamental frequency—while degrading temporal fine structure encoding and increasing neural transmission delay. However, only limited associations were found between FFR measures and behavioral speech-in-noise performance.

These findings indicate that the FFR is a robust biomarker of auditory processing in noise, but provides limited support as a predictor of speech-in-noise perception in healthy young adults. The paper contributes to ongoing efforts to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying communication in challenging listening environments.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2026.109591