TITLE:
Environmental Sounds Enhance Cortical Responses Related to a Serial Arithmetic Task
AUTHORS:
Koichiro Fujimaki, Hidenori Takemoto, Shigeru Morinobu
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Sound, Cortical Response, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.8,
June
11,
2014
ABSTRACT: In this
study, we used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to examine the effects of environmental
sounds on performance of a serial arithmetic task. Subjects included 6 males
and 15 females aged 21 or 22 years. All subjects were required to perform a
serial arithmetic task according to the Uchida-Kraepelin performance test. We
used four environmental conditions: hubbub sound, forest sound, traffic noise,
and a silent control condition. During the serial arithmetic task, we also
measured hemodynamic changes in the frontal cortex using NIRS to assess the
effects of environmental sounds on brain function during the serial arithmetic
task. Results showed that exposure to environmental sounds did not enhance or
detract from task performance speed in a serial arithmetic task performance
when compared with results obtained upon exposure to silence. However, environmental
sounds enhanced cortical responses during the serial arithmetic task. Our
results reveal differences in activation of the prefrontal cortex under
different sound conditions, which may help increase our understanding of the
potential effects of environmental sounds.