This interdisciplinary research project is based on 4 areas:
1: Ambisonics and Spatial Audio. One way to reliably record a sound environment in order to represent it in laboratory conditions, is by means of ambisonics, e.g., an array of 19 MEMs microphones capable of capturing high spatial resolution. This type of audio signals are renderable to any surround speaker system and accepted by ISO standard 12913-2 for soundscape studies. Here, a 3rd order ambisonic recording rendered to 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos standard (Figures 1a and 1b).
2: Acoustic Measurements and Psychoacoustic Parameters. After recording the acoustic environment to be used as stimulus, its physical characteristics need to be measured, e.g., while reproducing it in the lab (Figures 2a and 2b). ISO 12913 states the minimum required metrics to characterize acoustic environments such as LAeq and ISO 3382 describes standards to obtain such measurements for open-plan offices. These indicators predict the de levels of human hearing perception like loudness, roughness, or sharpness, i.e., psychoacoustic parameters.
3: Executive Functions. The sound that surrounds us affects our attention and memory, but that depends on factors such as our ability to self-regulate our emotions and focus on goal-directed activities, i.e., Executive Functions. These personal traits, rooted in the neuroanatomy of the executive prefrontal cortex, are developed throughout our lives and can be studied with, for example, psychometrics, e.g., individual measures of perceptual differences from sound stimuli or cognitive tests such as working memory capacity tasks, e.g., our capacity to process and store information at the same time (see Figure 3). Additionaly, rating scales of personality traits, executive functioning, and perceived affective quality, predict acoustic stimuli arousal, goal-oriented management capacity and subjective perception correspondingly. Disciplines that look into this type of research are cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
4: Biofeedback and Physiological Effects of Sound. The heart Inter Beat Intervals vary across time. The higher this Heart Rate Variability, the better for our health. We can elicit optimal HRV by paced breathing at Resonant Frequency Breathing Rate, i.e., RFBR, (see figure 4). This stimulates the 10th cortical nerve, i.e., the vagus nerve, which connects areas of the Pre Frontal Cortex with different organs part of the autonomic nervous system such as heart, lungs and gut. Can sound help us breathe at RFBR to improve health and cognition?
