I did some research on this as part of my undergrad in the early 00's
I skimmed the article but it seems to align with the literature back then. The thinking was during our evolution that high volume low frequency sounds would represent a precursor to mortal danger (avalanches, earthquakes, stampedes, thunder, wind) so we were attuned to secreting stress hormones in early response. Unfortunately, much of our urban built-environment is full of (human-made) constant low-frequency sources, although we appear to have adapted to a degree (HVAC systems in buildings, traffic, industrial process plants, airports and air traffic, explosions, concerts).
What isn't mentioned here, that I remember finding particularly concerning, was that while we seem to adapt, it's over our own time, as children we secrete more cortisol to low frequency noise than when we are adults... maybe some form of long term CBT I don't know.
I have no idea where my old paper is but I remember (and someone with more time might want to check/confirm this) one important study showed cortisol levels of children at schools close to Heathrow compared to out in the UK countryside and how this affected standardised testing. There were limitations, and of course you had to control for a range of factors, socio-economic, teaching staff etc, but there was some measurable negative effect (again no idea if this was repeated/corroborated).
The actual research I was doing was into our auditory perception of urban spaces. We took recordings of various urban settings and had participants listen and rate their emotional responses, if it felt "hot" or "cold" (and other adjective pairs), we also had them draw something to represent what they were listening too.
Our "findings" were pretty limited for a short undergrad project but it was interesting how we generally appreciate background chatter and live-music and generally fearful and cold from large flat surface reflected sound (empty city plazas).
I got curious and tried to find the original but I think might be:
Haines, M. M., Stansfeld, S. A., Job, R. F. S., Berglund, B., &Head, J. (2001a). Chronic aircraft noise exposure, stress responses, mental health and cognitive performance in school children. Psychological Medicine 31, 265-277.
And features in a brief meta analysis which some may find interesting:
Matheson, M., et al. "The effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children's cognition and health : 3 field studies." Noise and Health, vol. 5, no. 19, Apr.-June 2003. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A164796669/HRCA?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-HRCA&xid=afd7e60c. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022. [https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&u=googlescholar&id=GALE|A...]
I skimmed the article but it seems to align with the literature back then. The thinking was during our evolution that high volume low frequency sounds would represent a precursor to mortal danger (avalanches, earthquakes, stampedes, thunder, wind) so we were attuned to secreting stress hormones in early response. Unfortunately, much of our urban built-environment is full of (human-made) constant low-frequency sources, although we appear to have adapted to a degree (HVAC systems in buildings, traffic, industrial process plants, airports and air traffic, explosions, concerts).
What isn't mentioned here, that I remember finding particularly concerning, was that while we seem to adapt, it's over our own time, as children we secrete more cortisol to low frequency noise than when we are adults... maybe some form of long term CBT I don't know.
I have no idea where my old paper is but I remember (and someone with more time might want to check/confirm this) one important study showed cortisol levels of children at schools close to Heathrow compared to out in the UK countryside and how this affected standardised testing. There were limitations, and of course you had to control for a range of factors, socio-economic, teaching staff etc, but there was some measurable negative effect (again no idea if this was repeated/corroborated).
The actual research I was doing was into our auditory perception of urban spaces. We took recordings of various urban settings and had participants listen and rate their emotional responses, if it felt "hot" or "cold" (and other adjective pairs), we also had them draw something to represent what they were listening too.
Our "findings" were pretty limited for a short undergrad project but it was interesting how we generally appreciate background chatter and live-music and generally fearful and cold from large flat surface reflected sound (empty city plazas).