Differences between alcoholic and non alcoholic individuals in the recognition of vocal emotional stimuli: A case-control study

Emotional decoding ability has been repetitively shown to be impaired in alcoholic patients. The present study aims to extend previous findings on emotions deficits examining the auditory stimuli recognition ability in alcoholism. Twenty-six alcohol-dependent patients, abstinent from alcohol for at least four weeks, were compared to 26 controls matched for sex, age and socioeconomic level. Subjects were asked to listen to 20 vocal stimuli expressing happiness, anger, sadness, surprise and fear. Alcoholic subjects were found significantly less accurate than controls, making more labeling error in recognizing vocal emotions conveying anger and sadness. Alcohol dependent subjects appear to be deficient in the ability to understand emotional valence of auditory stimuli, which may result in errors of judgment within social interactions. Clinical and research implications are discussed.