Study of cognitive dysfunction in exposure to traffic noise

Introduction: driving is such a complex cognitive task that requires a high level of vigilance and response to an emergency. Anything that leads to cognitive performance degradation in the driverchr('39')s mental processing, increases crash risks. Traffic noise as one of the most destructive elements of cognitive function was examined in this study. Methods: In this study, the sample consisted of 80 patients (40 cases and 40 controls) who were students of Tehran University of medical sciences that were selected through systematic sampling and then the average sound pressure level recorded traffic noise was played for participants in the acoustics room. To Measure reaction time and error in time movement anticipation, the RT and ZBA softwares were used ,respectively. Results: The results revealed that reaction time increased significantly after exposure to traffic noise. The error time movement after exposure to traffic noise has not significant difference. Conlusions: According to the results it can be concluded that mental activities such as speed and power of information processing are affected by traffic noise and in a confrontation with traffic noise show different changes.