Emotional Responses to Pleasant Sounds Are Related to Social Disconnectedness and Loneliness Independent of Hearing Loss

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between emotional responses to sounds, hearing acuity, and isolation, specifically objective isolation (social disconnectedness) and subjective isolation (loneliness). It was predicted that ratings of valence in response to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli would influence the relationship between hearing loss and isolation. Participants included 83 adults, without depression, who were categorized into three groups (young with normal hearing, older with normal hearing, and adults with mild-to-moderately severe hearing loss). Participants made ratings of valence in response to pleasant and unpleasant nonspeech sounds, presented at a moderate overall level in the laboratory. Participants also completed questionnaires related to social disconnectedness and loneliness. Data were analyzed using multiple regression with questionnaire scores as dependent variables. Independent variables were age, gender, degree of hearing loss, perceived hearing handicap, number of depressive symptoms, mean valence rating in response to unpleasant sounds, and mean valence rating in response to pleasant sounds. Emotional responses to pleasant sounds explained significant variability in scores of both social disconnectedness and loneliness. Depressive symptoms also explained variability in loneliness scores. Hearing loss was not significantly related to social disconnectedness or loneliness, although it was the only variable significantly related to ratings of valence in response to pleasant sounds. Emotional responses to pleasant sounds are related to disconnectedness and loneliness. Although not related to isolation in this study, hearing loss was related to emotional responses. Thus, emotional responses should be considered in future models of isolation and hearing loss.

Silence, Solitude, and Serotonin: Neural Mechanisms Linking Hearing Loss and Social Isolation

“…The interactive effects of hearing loss and emotional systems on perception are also illustrated by a three-way interaction between hearing loss, the subjective perception of social isolation, and the affective perception of acoustic stimuli. Subjects with hearing loss show dampened emotional ratings of affectively charged sounds, use a smaller range of values to describe such sounds, or take longer to respond to affective sounds but not neutral sounds in comparison to normal hearing listeners [ 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 ]. The degree of hearing loss may further correlate with depression and anxiety [ 177 ].…”

“…The degree of hearing loss may further correlate with depression and anxiety [ 177 ]. In one study, both hearing loss and the perception of social disconnectedness were related to emotional ratings of a test battery of non-speech sounds [ 178 ]. These findings show that long-term accommodation to hearing loss by the brain incorporates neural systems that regulate cognitive and affective processes, which may be involved in some of the devastating perceptual dysfunctions associated with hearing loss.…”

Effects of Increasing the Overall Level or Fitting Hearing Aids on Emotional Responses to Sounds

“…Permanent hearing loss, which is highly prevalent in older adults ( Lin et al, 2011 ; Stevens et al, 2013 ), can disrupt emotion perception (see for review, Picou et al., 2018 ). The effects of hearing loss on emotion perception are evident in the ability to recognize emotion in the voice of others ( Christensen et al, 2019 ; Singh et al, 2018 ) and in the emotion experienced in response to sound ( Husain et al, 2014 ; Picou, 2016 ; Picou & Buono, 2018 ). Because recognizing emotion in others and experiencing a full range of emotions are both important to adults’ social and psychological function ( Arthaud-Day et al, 2005 ; Luo et al, 2018 ; Picou & Buono, 2018 ; Singh et al, 2018 ), it is important to understand the effects of hearing loss and hearing loss interventions on emotion perception.…”

“…The effects of hearing loss on emotion perception are evident in the ability to recognize emotion in the voice of others ( Christensen et al, 2019 ; Singh et al, 2018 ) and in the emotion experienced in response to sound ( Husain et al, 2014 ; Picou, 2016 ; Picou & Buono, 2018 ). Because recognizing emotion in others and experiencing a full range of emotions are both important to adults’ social and psychological function ( Arthaud-Day et al, 2005 ; Luo et al, 2018 ; Picou & Buono, 2018 ; Singh et al, 2018 ), it is important to understand the effects of hearing loss and hearing loss interventions on emotion perception. The focus of this paper is specifically on experienced emotion in response to sounds within the context of the dimensional view of emotion.…”

“…It is possible that hearing loss reduces audibility of acoustic cues that are important for emotion perception, for example, fundamental frequency for speech (e.g., Pell et al, 2009 ) or spectral centroid for music ( Brattico et al, 2011 ). Indeed, the degree of hearing loss has been related to performance on emotion recognition tasks ( Singh et al., 2018 ) and on experienced emotion tasks ( Picou & Buono, 2018 ), suggesting that reduction in audibility is related to emotion perception.…”