Noise pollution, especially that’s due to road traffic, is a widespread problem in cities around the world. At a time when the impact of these on children isn’t well understood, a new study conducted at 38 schools in Barcelona, Spain suggests that traffic noise at schools has a detrimental effect on children’s cognitive development. The study was led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and the findings have been published in PLOS Medicine in June.
Attention and working memory
The study covered 2.680 children between seven and 10 years of age. To assess the impact of traffic noise on cognitive development, researchers focussed on attention and working memory-two abilities that develop rapidly in that age group and are essential for learning. While attention corresponds to selectively attending to specific stimuli, working memory refers to the system that enables us to hold information in the mind and manipulate it during a brief period of time.
Over a 12-month period in 2012 and 2013, the field work of the study saw participants complete cognitive tests four times. By doing this, they were not only able to assess working memory and attention, but could also study their evolution over time. Noise measurements were taken in front of the 38 participating schools over the same period.
Slower progression
At the end of the study period, the findings clearly showed that the progression of working memory and attention was comparably slower in students who attended schools with higher levels of traffic noise. This supports the hypothesis that during childhood external stimuli like noise can affect the rapid process of cognitive development that takes place before adolescence.
Thus, the effects of transport on children’s cognitive development not only includes schools exposed to aircraft noise and schools exposed to traffic-related air pollution, but also schools exposed to road traffic noise. Further studies on road traffic noise and their effects on children in other populations and cities are necessary to find out if these initial findings can be extrapolated to other scenarios.
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