Infrasound and its relevance for audible sound

越来越多的人接触到次声。众所周知，某些人可能特别敏感，他们的生活质量因一系列症状（失眠、注意力不集中、烦躁不安、偏头痛）而大大降低。然而，人类是如何处理次声的，这基本上是无法解释的。该项目旨在研究次声和低频声的感知机制。这将为医生和心理学家提供必要的信息，以便更好地研究这种声音对人类的影响。关于次声是如何被“听到”的一个假设是，听觉系统产生了音频失真产物。另一种次声感知假说认为，次声之所以能被听到，是因为它调节了声音。这两种假设应通过听力测试进行批判性验证。后者的结果以及技术耳道声音测量的结果将为在本项目中开发次声感知过程模型提供基础。据信，从长远来看，该项目的结果将为今后的安全条例和次声发射的充分表征奠定基础。研究结果对于保护健康（防止有害次声排放）和经济发展（次声排放，例如风力涡轮机的制造商和运营商）都具有重要意义。

An increasing number of individuals are being exposed to infrasound. It is well known that certain individuals may be particularly sensitive and that their quality of life is considerably degraded by a range of symptoms (insomnia, concentration disorders, restlessness, migraine). It is, however, substantially unexplained, how infrasound is processed by human beings. The project aims at investigating the perception mechanisms for infrasound and low-frequency sound. This will provide physicians and psychologists with essential information for an improved examination of the effects such sound has on humans.One hypothesis, how infrasound can be "heard", is that the auditory system generates audio-frequency distortion products. An alternative infrasound perception hypothesis is that infrasound becomes audible because it modulates audio sound. These two hypotheses shall be critically validated by means of listening tests. The results of the latter as well as those of the technical ear canal sound measurements shall provide the basis for developing models of the infrasound perception processes within this project.The results of this project are believed to lay, in the long run, the ground for future safety regulations and for an adequate characterization of infrasound emission. The results will be important for both protection of health (protection against hazardous infrasound immission) and for economic development (infrasound emission, e.g. manufacturer and operators of wind turbines).