Brain-to-Speech: Prosody Feature Engineering and Transformer-Based Reconstruction

Abstract

This chapter presents a novel approach to brain-to-speech (BTS) synthesis from intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) data, emphasizing prosody-aware feature engineering and advanced transformer-based models for high-fidelity speech reconstruction. Driven by the increasing interest in decoding speech directly from brain activity, this work integrates neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and signal processing to generate accurate and natural speech. We introduce a novel pipeline for extracting key prosodic features directly from complex brain iEEG signals, including intonation, pitch, and rhythm. To effectively utilize these crucial features for natural-sounding speech, we employ advanced deep learning models. Furthermore, this chapter introduces a novel transformer encoder architecture specifically designed for brain-to-speech tasks. Unlike conventional models, our architecture integrates the extracted prosodic features to significantly enhance speech reconstruction, resulting in generated speech with improved intelligibility and expressiveness. A detailed evaluation demonstrates superior performance over established baseline methods, such as traditional Griffin-Lim and CNN-based reconstruction, across both quantitative and perceptual metrics. By demonstrating these advancements in feature extraction and transformer-based learning, this chapter contributes to the growing field of AI-driven neuroprosthetics, paving the way for assistive technologies that restore communication for individuals with speech impairments. Finally, we discuss promising future research directions, including the integration of diffusion models and real-time inference systems.