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Hearing Aids Reshape Neural Processing of Emotional Speech Without Improving Emotion Perception
Carmen Dang1, Gurjit Singh1,2,3, Frank A Russo1,2
1Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Trends in Hearing
|July 2, 2026
Summary
Hearing aids do not improve speech emotion perception in older adults. While hearing aids alter brain activity, shifting it from frontal to parietal regions, they do not fully restore emotional speech processing.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Audiology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Hearing loss negatively impacts speech emotion perception in older adults.
- Existing hearing aids improve speech clarity but not emotional nuance.
- Brain imaging studies are complicated by hearing aid metal, limiting research during aided listening.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural effects of hearing aids on speech emotion perception in older adults using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
- To compare brain activity during aided and unaided listening conditions in hearing aid users.
- To understand how hearing aids modulate cortical processing of emotional speech.
Main Methods:
- Used fNIRS to measure hemodynamic brain activity in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired older adults.
- Hearing aid users performed a speech emotion perception task under both aided and unaided conditions.
- Analyzed cortical responses, including planum temporale, medial superior frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobe activity, and functional connectivity.
Main Results:
- Behaviorally, hearing aids did not enhance speech emotion perception.
- Hearing loss was associated with increased planum temporale activity, irrespective of hearing aid use.
- Unaided listening showed increased frontal activity and connectivity; aided listening showed increased parietal activity but reduced frontal-parietal connectivity.
Conclusions:
- Hearing aids partially alter cortical processing of emotional speech by reducing reliance on frontal compensatory networks.
- Increased parietal lobe activity during aided listening suggests a shift towards higher-order processing.
- Persistent auditory processing deficits and incomplete sensorimotor integration may explain the limited benefits of hearing aids for speech emotion perception.
Keywords:
agingfunctional near-infrared spectroscopyhearing aidshearing lossspeech emotion perceptionMore Related Videos
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