Cognitive-driven convolutional beamforming using EEG-based auditory attention decoding

The performance of speech enhancement algorithms in a multi-speaker scenario depends on correctly identifying the target speaker to be enhanced. Auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods allow to identify the target speaker which the listener is attending to from single-trial EEG recordings. In this paper we propose a cognitive-driven multi-microphone speech enhancement system, which combines a neural-network-based mask estimator, weighted minimum power distortionless response convolutional beamformers and AAD. The proposed system allows to enhance the attended speaker and jointly suppress reverberation, the interfering speaker and ambient noise. To control the suppression of the interfering speaker, we also propose an extension incorporating an interference suppression constraint. The experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms the state-of-the-art cognitive-driven speech enhancement systems in reverberant and noisy conditions.