PECULIARITIES OF NON-AUDITORY EFFECTS OF NOISE DEPENDING ON THE DOSE AND PROCESSED AMOUNT OF ACOUSTIC INFORMATION

Abstract

Most of non-auditory effects cannot be explained as a simple consequence of noise energy influence. The level of arousal also depends on predictability of acoustic signals (level of entropy). The present article aims to analyse the contribution of noise dose and the level of entropy in non-auditory effects. 117 metallurgists and 15 healthy non-adapted to noise men were exposed to 4 different combinations of noise dose and entropy (during 8 hour working shift and 1 hour in a soundproof room correspondingly). Experiment was 2x2 factorial design. Functional state of cardiovascular and central nervous system was evaluated before and after exposure. The chosen noise characteristics account for up to 80% of the dispersion of nonspecific effects. The largest number of significant differences were between the groups, where the controlled factors were either at the lower or the upper level of variation. Noise dose and entropy contribute to such non-specific reactions as systolic/diastolic blood pressure, Stress Index, Kerdo index, duration of RR intervals, visual/hearing motion time delay. The cardiovascular system is the most sensitive to the variation of the entropy of the acoustic field.