Effects of aging on voice emotion recognition in cochlear implant users and normally hearing adults listening to spectrally degraded speech

Abstract

Voice emotion recognition declines with age in normally hearing (NH) adults. However, the effects of aging on voice emotion recognition in NH listeners with spectrally degraded stimuli are neither known nor the effects of aging on adult cochlear implant (CI) users. This study explored age-related effects on voice emotion recognition in NH adults listening to spectrally degraded speech and aimed to compare these changes to age-related changes in adult CI users’ voice emotion recognition with unprocessed speech. Participants listened to 12 emotion-neutral sentences, each spoken with 5 emotions (happy, sad, scared, angry, and neutral) by a male and female talker. Participants identified which emotion they heard while listening to sentences that were either unprocessed or CI-simulated. Preliminary results indicate declines in overall percent correct scores and increased reaction time with both age and increasing spectral degradation in NH adults. Results also suggest age-related effects on percent correct scores and reaction times within the CI group alone. These results have important implications in the aging population of adults with NH and with CIs because limitations in the quality peer to peer interactions have been associated with a decrease in perceived quality of life. [Work supported by R01 DC014233 and P20 GM109023.]