Effects of Increasing the Overall Level or Fitting Hearing Aids on Emotional Responses to Sounds.

ABSTRACT: Adults with hearing loss demonstrate a reduced range of emotional responses to nonspeech sounds compared to their peers with normal hearing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate two possible strategies for addressing the effects of hearing loss on emotional responses: (a) increasing overall level and (b) hearing aid use (with and without nonlinear frequency compression, NFC). Twenty-three adults (mean age  =  65.5 years) with mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss and 17 adults (mean age  =  56.2 years) with normal hearing participated. All adults provided ratings of valence and arousal without hearing aids in response to nonspeech sounds presented at a moderate and at a high level. Adults with hearing loss also provided ratings while using individually fitted study hearing aids wi

SUBMITTER: Picou EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8825634 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature