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Conversational engagement modulates neural speech tracking in real-time dialogue

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom
Also presenting in Data Blitz Session 3 - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm PST, Salon E.

Marcos E. Domínguez Arriola¹ (), Peter C.H. Lam¹, Alejandro Pérez², Marc D. Pell¹; ¹McGill University, ²Universidad de La Laguna

During speech listening, cortical activity shows rhythmic fluctuations that align with the temporal dynamics of the acoustic signal. This neural speech tracking (NST), measurable with EEG, reflects the degree to which connected speech is represented in cortical activity, and is modulated by both stimulus acoustic features and motivational-attentional factors. Here, we examined for the first time whether contextual conversational factors influence neural tracking of speech during truly social, naturalistic interaction. In a dual-EEG (“hyperscanning”) setup, 48 participants (24 unacquainted dyads) held short, free-form conversations on topics they had jointly rated as highly interesting or uninteresting. After each conversation, participants provided a set of ratings that together composed a behavioral index of conversational engagement. Each speaking turn was subsequently delineated from the synchronized audio recordings through careful manual segmentation. NST was computed as the peak Gaussian Copula Mutual Information (GCMI) between the speech envelope and EEG across stimulus-response lags of 0-300 ms. A linear mixed-effects model controlling for speakers’ main vocal acoustic features and the conversational topic showed that listeners’ perceived conversational engagement explained unique variability in the extent of NST in frontal and bilateral temporal regions (p = 0.019), with more engaging conversations eliciting stronger NST. This finding shows a cortical encoding advantage for engaging live conversations, highlighting that even early auditory encoding is dynamically shaped by listeners’ motivational engagement, and suggesting that processes previously observed in controlled listening tasks extend to natural, interactive communication.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition