THE perennial argument about whether students should or should not study with blaring rock music in the background has, caused many a family row. Two psychologists at the University of Bristol may be able to settle the argument - and the answer is the opposite of what most parents think. They've discovered that loud noise can actually make people more alert.
Researchers treated two patient groups with a drug which reduces alertness by slowing down the release of noradrenaline, a chemical in the brain involved in the control of attention.
They then placed one group in quiet conditions and made the other wear headphones playing artificially produced loud noise. When each group was asked to carry out a simple test to identify the letters A and B, people exposed to noise responded faster than their "quiet" counterparts. Psychologists Andrew Smith and David Nutt, describing their findings in the science journal Nature, concluded that noise "increases arousal by increasing noradrenaline release".