How AI and Nature Sounds Help Minds Recover in Noisy Cities

Why It Matters

City life is rarely quiet. Constant traffic noise drains our ability to focus and recover from mental effort – not just outdoors, but also inside offices, retail spaces, and even hospitals. This research shows that layering natural sounds, such as birds and flowing water, guided by AI, can restore the body’s natural rhythms of attention and recovery.

Key Takeaways

• Physiological data (heart-rate variability) reveal that nature-based soundscaped environments enhance concentration and speed up recovery, during both effort and relaxation.
• AI-selected nature sounds can offset the fatiguing effects of traffic noise in both indoor and outdoor environments.
• Adaptive soundscaping could transform offices, retail spaces, and hospitals into environments that promote calm, concentration, and well-being.

The hidden cost of noise

From high-rise offices to urban parks, few places in modern cities are truly quiet. Prolonged exposure to traffic and mechanical noise can subtly erode concentration, increase fatigue, and slow recovery after expending mental effort. Research has long shown that such “noise fatigue” reduces productivity and wellbeing, yet redesigning city infrastructure or relocating spaces away from traffic is rarely practical.

This inspired researchers from Nanyang Technological University to ask: Can we redesign what we hear, rather than where we are? If sound itself can be re-engineered, it could transform how people work, shop, and heal – whether in a park, an open-plan office, a retail store, or a hospital waiting area.

AI, nature, and physiological science

The interdisciplinary team combined cognitive neuroscience and acoustic engineering to test whether “augmented soundscapes” – gentle layers of natural sounds like birdsong or running water – could mitigate the detrimental effects of traffic noise.

Two large studies were conducted: one in a controlled indoor laboratory, and another in a real-world outdoor park exposed to heavy traffic. Participants performed demanding mental tasks and then recovered in environments with different sound conditions: traffic noise alone, silence, or traffic mixed with natural sounds. Throughout, researchers recorded heart-rate variability (HRV), a well-established physiological index of stress and mental fatigue, to track how quickly the body recovered.

Crucially, the nature sounds were AI-selected and dynamically delivered. The system analysed the surrounding noise and automatically chose sound types and volume levels predicted to maximise comfort and perceived pleasantness. Although HRV sensors were laboratory-grade, similar physiological monitoring could one day be achieved through consumer wearables, allowing environments to adjust in real time.

What the data revealed

In both indoor and outdoor settings, traffic noise reduced physiological recovery by nearly half. When AI-generated natural sounds were added, HRV and cognitive performance rebounded to levels similar to those in silence. Participants recovered faster, sustained attention longer, and showed improved accuracy on cognitive tasks, even though they remained in noisy surroundings.

The effect was not limited to self-reported mood; it was measurable in the body’s automatic responses. The results demonstrate that even subtle natural sounds can realign the body’s rhythms of effort and recovery when they are tuned to complement, rather than mask, city noise.

Business and Societal Implications

For retailers, soundscaping offers a way to create welcoming, restorative stores that keep customers calm and engaged – a subtle layer of nature that enhances dwell time and satisfaction.

For employers and designers, it provides a low-cost strategy to support focus and wellbeing in open offices or co-working spaces affected by external noise.

For healthcare environments, gentle, AI-optimised natural sounds could reduce stress for patients and staff in high-noise zones such as waiting areas or recovery wards.

Looking ahead, AI-driven hyper-adaptive acoustic systems could one day use physiological feedback from wearables to sense fatigue, adjust the surrounding soundscape, and restore mental balance automatically, turning noisy cities into intelligent, human-centred environments.

Authors & Sources

Authors: Syaheed B. Jabar, Kar Fye Alvin Lee, Elliot Chan, Jit Wei Aaron Ang, Bhan Lam, Vanessa Boey, Irene Lee, Woon-Seng Gan, and Georgios Christopoulos (Nanyang Technological University)

Original article:Building and Environment (Vol. 287, 2026)

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