Healthy volunteers, when given information about the expected physiological effect of infrasound, reported symptoms that aligned with that information, during exposure to both infrasound and sham infrasound. Symptom expectations were created by viewing information readily available on the Internet, indicating the potential for symptom expectations to be created outside of the laboratory, in real world settings. Results suggest psychological expectations could explain the link between wind turbine exposure and health complaints.
The study demonstrates that expectations can influence symptom and mood reports in both positive and negative directions. The results suggest that if expectations about infrasound are framed in more neutral or benign ways, then it is likely reports of symptoms or negative effects could be nullified.
Compared with more fashionable computer modeling, acoustical modeling is far from being superseded. In fact, there is often no alternative to acoustical modeling when designing an auditorium. Careful analysis of the laws of similarity shows that there remains some possibility of improving the acoustical testing of small models. This improvement does not solely concern transducers but the processing of impulse responses as well. Digital processing provides both accuracy of computation and compensation for air attenuation. Based on these principles, a computer-aided testing plant was designed and a computer package was written to drive it. A modular structure was selected as giving the maximum flexibility. Thus a digital evaluation of objective room-acoustical parameters can be achieved within a few minutes. So far, computer-aided acoustical modeling has proved well adapted for research and designing purposes.
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