Elevated pre-target EEG alpha power enhances the probability of comprehending weakly noise masked words and decreases the probability of comprehending strongly masked words.

• EEG-assessed pre-target activity predicts speech-in-noise recognition. • α activity in left temporal areas predicts speech recognition probability. • Enhanced α power increases recognition probability of less heavily masked targets. • Enhanced α power decreases recognition probability of more heavily masked targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]