Noise pollution can affect children’s memories.
New research has revealed that children who attend schools with a higher level of traffic noise have slower cognitive development.
Researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health studied children attending 38 schools across the Spanish city and the result proved that the progression of working memory was worse for those who attended classrooms with higher noise levels.
Jordi Sunyer, an author of the study, said: “Our study supports the hypothesis that childhood is a vulnerable period during which external stimuli such as noise can affect the rapid process of cognitive development that takes place before adolescence.”
The team studied over 2,000 children aged 7-10 and the kids completed cognitive tests four times over a period of 12 months to produce the findings.
