India, July 27 -- Recently, researchers at North Carolina State University studied how different sounds and surroundings affect people's emotions and stress levels.
The researchers asked students from NC State's College of Natural Resources to wear noise-cancelling headphones while sitting in one of two places - a restored nature trail or a busy urban area. Through the headphones, participants listened to either birdsong or traffic noise. Both the location and the sound were randomly assigned so the researchers could measure the separate effects of the environment and the sounds.
The natural site was a restored forest beside a creek that had been replanted and redesigned in the early 2000s. It had more than 70 percent tree cover and no vi...