To the Brain and Back: Speech Emotion Perception, Hearing Loss, and Hearing Aid Use

Spoken language conveys meaning not only through words but also through tone of voice, body language, context, and other dimensions. Emotion is one such feature carried by the voice, and awareness of emotion plays an important role in building and managing social relationships. Hearing joy in someone’s voice helps us share that joy, and hearing sadness can be met with consolation....

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Clinicians should recognise that hearing loss impairs speech emotion perception, and may consider this dimension when counselling patients on the social and psychological benefits of hearing aid use, though direct clinical protocols need further research support.

Highlighting the social-emotional consequences of hearing loss — and hearing aids' potential role in restoring emotional communication — broadens the clinical and counselling framework beyond speech intelligibility alone.

1. 01Hearing loss impairs the ability to recognise emotions conveyed through the voice (speech emotion perception).
2. 02Key brain regions involved in processing vocal emotions include the auditory cortex, IFC, PMC, IPL, and STS.
3. 03Hearing aid use may partially restore speech emotion perception, with neurological implications.
4. 04Impaired emotion recognition from voice has downstream social and psychological consequences.
5. 05The article advocates for including emotional communication outcomes in audiological rehabilitation goals.

Journal

Canadian Audiologist

Publication type

review

Evidence level

5

Population

Adults with hearing loss using or not using hearing aids

Intervention

Hearing aid use and its effect on speech emotion perception

Comparator

Normal-hearing individuals or unaided hearing loss