Non-auditory Effect of Noise Pollution and Its Risk on Human Brain Activity in Different Audio Frequency Using Electroencephalogram Complexity

BACKGROUND: Noise pollution is one of the most harmful ambiance disturbances. It may cause many deficits in ability and activity of persons in the urban and industrial areas. It also may cause many kinds of psychopathies. Therefore, it is very important to measure the risk of this pollution in different area. METHODS: This study was conducted in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Tehran University of Medical Sciences from June to September of 2015, in which, different frequencies of noise pollution were played for volunteers. 16-channel EEG signal was recorded synchronously, then by using fractal dimension and relative power of Beta sub-band of EEG, the complexity of EEG signals was measured. RESULTS: As the results, it is observed that the average complexity of brain activity is increased in the middle of audio frequency range and the complexity map of brain activity changes in different frequencies, which can show the effects of frequency changes on human brain activity. CONCLUSION: The complexity of EEG is a good measure for ranking the annoyance and non-auditory risk of noise pollution on human brain activity.