Characterization of voice cue sensitivity and vocal emotion recognition across the adult lifespan

Studies show that vocal emotion recognition declines with age, but whether this is due to reduced sensitivity to acoustic cues (e.g., pitch-based cues) or cognitive changes is unclear. We assessed sensitivity to two important voice cues, fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL), which may also be relevant for emotion perception in speech. Using an adaptive 3I-3AFC paradigm, we measured just-noticeable differences to evaluate sensitivity to F0 and VTL. In a second task, we assessed vocal emotion recognition for happy, angry, and sad utterances in non-language-specific pseudo-speech. Participants ranged in age from 24 to 70 years, allowing us to examine how both lower-level sensory processing and higher-level emotion processing are affected by age, and the predictive value of F0 and VTL sensitivity in emotion recognition tasks.