Perception and Production of Emotional Prosody With Cochlear Implants

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are studying how children and adults with cochlear implants (CIs) perceive and produce emotions in speech, focusing on how they use different sound cues to recognize and express emotions. The study aims to understand why there is wide variation in emotional communication abilities among CI users, with the goal of improving social communication and quality of life for people with hearing loss. The project includes both children and postlingually deaf adults with CIs, as well as normally hearing participants for comparison. Participants will engage in two types of tasks: listening tasks where they identify emotions in speech or nonspeech sounds using a computer program, and speaking tasks where they read sentences or converse to produce emotional speech. Researchers will analyze speech recordings for acoustic features like pitch, intensity, and duration. The study uses novel methods to examine how experience with a cochlear implant affects the use of emotional sound cues over time, combining cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. Throughout the study, participants will also complete tests of cognition, vocabulary, and theory of mind to understand factors influencing emotional communication. There is no control group assignment; all participants undergo similar assessments. Researchers will measure outcomes such as accuracy and sensitivity in emotion recognition, acoustic qualities of speech productions, and reaction times. The study will last up to five years, with continuous data collection and analysis to inform future clinical protocols and technological improvements for cochlear implant users.

Vocal Emotion Communication With Cochlear Implants