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Effects of loneliness on ERP responses to supportive speech

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Luisa Elena Hernández Melo¹ (), Marc D. Pell¹; ¹McGill University

It has been shown that supportive speech has a distinct acoustic signature (lower loudness and pitch, higher spectral slope values) and is perceived as warmer than neutral speech when produced by female speakers. Yet little is known about how this supportive tone of voice is processed by the brain. To address this gap, the present study compares the neurocognitive processing of utterances produced with socially supportive vs. dismissive voices. In addition, given research suggesting that loneliness is associated with hypervigilance to social threat, our study tests whether loneliness moderates neurocognitive responses to (un)supportive vocal cues in speech. During our testing sessions, female participants listen to brief supportive, neutral or dismissive utterances while rating the perceived compassion of the speaker during EEG recording. Participants also complete a series of post-EEG tasks and questionnaires (explicit ratings of speaker support, UCLA Loneliness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory–II, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale). We hypothesize that compared to dismissive voices, supportive prosody will increase the P200 amplitude from utterance onset reflecting the increased task relevance of these cues for estimating speaker compassion. Speaker voice differences should also be differentiated in the subsequent Late Positivity Complex (LPC) time window (dismissive > supportive between 400-800ms post-stimulus onset) due to increased monitoring of negative vocal cues over time. We predicted that loneliness would alter these responses, producing shorter latency in the P200 response, and possibly, qualitative shifts at the P200 and LPC voice processing stages reflecting hypervigilance to negative (dismissive) cues and reduced engagement with social reward.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Person perception