Skin conductance responses to emotional speech in hearing-impaired and hearing-aided listeners

Authors

  • Gabriel A Nespoli Ryerson University
  • Gurjit Singh Phonak AG
  • Frank A Russo Ryerson University

Abstract

Age-related hearing loss negatively impacts the perception of speech, and while hearing aids can ameliorate these deficits somewhat, questions remain about their ability to support the perception of emotion. In normal hearing adults, characteristic skin conductance responses (SCR) are triggered in response to emotional speech. The current study assessed the extent to which SCRs vary across normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and hearing-aided older adults. Participants were presented with audio-only samples of linguistically neutral sentences spoken in a happy, sad, angry, or calm manner, and were asked to respond with the expressed emotion. Normal hearing participants were both faster and more accurate in their responses than the hearing-impaired or hearing-aided participants. Normal-hearing participants exhibited an increase in skin conductance in response to negatively-valenced and high-arousal stimuli (i.e., angry, and to some extent happy and sad). This increase was not present in hearing-impaired participants but was recovered in hearing-aided participants. These findings raise important questions about the efficacy of signal processing strategies employed in modern digital hearing aids.

Author Biographies

Gabriel A Nespoli, Ryerson University

Ph.D. Student, Department of Psychology

Frank A Russo, Ryerson University

Professor, Department of Psychology

Additional Files

Published

2016-08-24

How to Cite

1.
Nespoli GA, Singh G, Russo FA. Skin conductance responses to emotional speech in hearing-impaired and hearing-aided listeners. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2016 Aug. 24 [cited 2024 Apr. 19];44(3). Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/2956

Issue

Vol. 44 No. 3 (2016)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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