Analysing the Changes in Physiological Response to Different Soundscape Scenarios

Noise pollution is one of the key environmental stressors leading to multiple health impacts for people and communities. Exposure to high noise levels may also be responsible for sudden emotional and physiological changes in humans. The experiment examines the change in Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) signals during exposure to pre-recorded soundscape scenarios. These scenarios were recorded in New Delhi, India and London, UK, using a binaural microphone set. The listening experiment was conducted in a laboratory, where 27 healthy individuals without any hearing impairment or any psychological issues participated. A total of 30 soundscape scenarios were presented to each participant in a randomised order. The continuous decomposition analysis is conducted to decompose that data into tonic and phasic components. The phasic component of the signal is used for the analysis. It is observed that skin conductance response increases with changes in eventfulness of the signal (P<0.05). The pleasantness of the signals has not shown a statistically significant relationship with the change in skin conductance response