Cochlear Implants Impair Emotional Responses to Music in Individuals With Single-Sided Deafness

Emotional responses to music are a crucial facet of music listening, but remain inadequately characterized among cochlear implant (CI) users. We aimed to evaluate musical emotion in implantees with single-sided deafness (SSD).

Cross-sectional.

Tertiary academic center, community hearing loss groups.

CI users with SSD (N=18); adult normal hearing (NH) controls (N=21).

Participants listened to 10 musical clips and rated valence (happiness vs. sadness) and arousal (excitement vs. calm).

Range-difference between a participant's maximum and minimum rating-and discrepancy-difference from a participant's NH ear ratings for each stimulus-of both valence and arousal.

Compared with SSD participants' NH ears, CI-alone listening demonstrated diminished range of valence (4.43 vs. 5.82, P =0.035) and arousal (5.80 vs. 6.41, P =0.033), although binaural listening was not significantly different from the NH ear. Nine of 20 ratings exhibited significant discrepancy between NH and CI ears, compared with only one between NH and binaural conditions; average discrepancy was higher for both valence and arousal in the NH versus CI comparison than NH versus binaural. Binaural listening for SSD individuals did not differ significantly from NH individuals for individual stimulus ratings or for valence and arousal range.

CIs dampen musical emotion, but do not substantially influence the binaural music listening experience for individuals with SSD. Our findings using within-subject controls demonstrate deficits in CI-mediated musical emotion, but the compensation by the NH ear in binaural listening offers encouragement for music lovers with SSD considering implantation.

Level III.