Background: Hearing impairment (HI) is a major problem in Ghana; however, the few attempts at shedding light on its causes appear to overlook the adverse effects of some medications—a gap that this study sought to fill. Aminoglycoside therapy for tuberculosis (TB) treatment is one of these medications. Aim: The aim of this study was to establish the potential of aminoglycoside as a cause of hearing impairment among patients on anti-TB treatment. Method: This was a case–control study, involving patients receiving treatment for TB with aminoglycoside at the chest clinic of the Tema General Hospital and a control group of age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers. A structured questionnaire was administered to obtain the demographic data and case history of the participants. The hearing sensitivity of the participants was assessed using conventional pure tone audiometry and transient evoked otoacoustic emission tests. Results: A hearing loss prevalence of 20% (12/60) was found among patients receiving treatment for TB, with the intensity of impairment ranging from mild to severe. Hearing thresholds of patients receiving anti-TB medications were significantly elevated (p < 0.05) in comparison to the thresholds of the control group, especially at the high frequencies. Conclusion: This study shows that aminoglycoside therapy for tuberculosis may contribute to hearing impairment among tuberculosis patients in Ghana. Audiological management of these patients should therefore be an essential part of their therapeutic treatment plan.

Purpose: This study examined the relationship between sensitivity to dynamic pitch (i.e., perception of intonation) and vocal emotion recognition in older adults under different listening conditions. We hypothesized that better dynamic pitch sensitivity would be positively associated with accurate recognition of vocal emotions, regardless of age or listening context. Method: We conducted two related studies. In Study 1, 32 listeners (ages 55–88 years) completed a pitch direction identification task assessing dynamic pitch sensitivity and a vocal emotion recognition task in quiet. In Study 2, 21 listeners (ages 56–88 years) from Study 1 completed the emotion recognition task in babble maskers presented from multiple locations around the listener at two signal-to-noise ratios. Results: In Study 1, results showed a significant positive relationship between dynamic pitch sensitivity and vocal emotion recognition. Study 2 found a similar relationship between dynamic pitch sensitivity and vocal emotion recognition as was observed in Study 1; however, this relationship did not reach statistical significance. Participants' age was found to negatively predict vocal emotion accuracy across both listening conditions. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the unique contribution of dynamic pitch sensitivity to individual differences in vocal emotion recognition in older listeners. These findings replicate and extend the literature on emotional communication in aging and suggest that dynamic pitch sensitivity may be one of the mechanisms supporting accurate emotion recognition in aging.