Emotional prosody (EP) conveys affective states through acoustic modulations of the voice and is crucial for social interaction. Its processing depends on specialized brain networks, with predominant right-hemisphere involvement. Dichotic listening paradigms typically show a left-ear advantage for emotional cues, while hedonic sounds, such as alcohol-related stimuli, engage reward and motivation circuits that may compete with attentional mechanisms. Twenty-two participants were assessed through clinical interviews, neuropsychological testing, and fMRI, using a dichotic listening paradigm that manipulated attentional focus (top-down/bottom-up) and attended ear. Reaction times were longer for EP than for alcohol, with better performance when attention was directed to the right ear. At the neural level, both conditions activated partially overlapping networks, but with distinct patterns: EP recruited left temporal and frontal regions, while alcohol stimuli engaged limbic and orbitofrontal areas. These findings suggest that although both conditions involve emotional processing, they do so in distinct ways depending on the type of stimulus and the attentional context. EP may constitute a sensitive marker in clinical populations, differentiating between impairments in affective communication and heightened sensitivity to hedonic rewards.