The fundamental purposes of hearing are to alert and to warn. As a result sound directly evokes emotions and actions. The processing of sound by the brain is outlined to provide a biological and psychological basis for understanding the way in which sound can become a human stressor. The auditory orienting response, startle reflex and defensive response translate sound stimuli into action and sometimes into stress induced bodily changes through "fight or flight" neural mechanisms. The literature on the health and mental health effects of noise then is reviewed in the context of an integrated model that offers a holistic approach to noise research and public policy formulation. The thesis of this paper is that research upon, and efforts to prevent or minimize the harmful effects of noise have suffered from the lack of a full appreciation of the ways in which humans process and react to sound.
Follow‐up of 130 nursery school children disclosed that early adjustment problems tend to persist in later life. The most valuable judgments at the nursery school level for predicting later use of mental health services were the teachers' evaluations of peer relations, behavioral eccentricity, and family relations.
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