Vocal Emotion Communication With Cochlear Implants
Trial Parameters
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Brief Summary
Patients with hearing loss who use cochlear implants (CIs) show significant deficits and strong unexplained intersubject variability in their perception and production of spoken emotions in speech. This project will investigate the hypothesis that "cue-weighting", or how patients utilize the different acoustic cues to emotion, accounts for significant variance in emotional communication with CIs. The results will focus on children with CIs, but parallel measures in postlingually deaf adults with CIs will be made, ensuring that results of these studies benefit social communication by CI patients across the lifespan by informing the development of technological innovations and improved clinical protocols.
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria: * Prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants * Postlingually deaf adults with cochlear implants * Normally hearing children * Normally hearing adults Exclusion Criteria: * Non-native speakers of American English * Prelingually deaf individuals who receive cochlear implants after age 12 * Adults unable to pass a basic cognitive screen