Medical Bionics - Theses

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Assessing Speech Detection and Discrimination in Sleeping Infants Using fNIRS

Lee, Onn Wah ( 2023-10)

Speech discrimination is critical in the development of speech and language in infants. The existing clinical tools are inadequate to measure speech discrimination in young infants. This thesis investigates the use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a novel, objective and infant-friendly neuroimaging technique, to measure speech detection and discrimination abilities in sleeping infants. The first study showed that the heart rate data extracted from fNIRS recordings can measure speech detection and discrimination ability. This simultaneously recorded information, when combined with the fNIRS hemodynamic response, has the potential to increase the effectiveness of measuring speech discrimination using fNIRS. Subsequent studies explore the morphology of the fNIRS response patterns to the detection and discrimination of speech sounds, using a new stimulus presentation protocol. We discovered an fNIRS response pattern not previously reported, consisting of two independent responses which changed differently over time. The differences in response morphology for various speech contrasts are attributed to varying brain arousal responses. These discoveries significantly contributed to the development of an accurate fNIRS response model for inferential analysis.