ArticleFrontiers in systems neuroscience2026
Complex multisource sound induces greater neurodegeneration in neonatal rat brain than single-source sound.
Article in Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Background: Excessive noise exposure is a known environmental health hazard linked to neurological injury and cognitive deficits. Whether complex sound waveforms from multiple sources exacerbate brain damage compared to a single-source noise of equal intensity remains unclear. We investigated the effects of identical music played either through one or four loudspeakers on the developing brain of newborn rats. Methods: Forty-one newborn Sprague-Dawley rat pups (both sexes), along with their dams, were randomly assigned to three groups: control (no noise, Results: Eight of 20 pups (40%) in the multi-speaker group died during the exposure period, compared to 5/15 (33%) in the single-speaker group and 3/6 (50%) in controls (differences not statistically significant). Maternal rats exhibited agitation, stress behaviors, and weight loss under noise; some eventually ceased escape attempts (habituation/helplessness behavior) in both noise-exposed groups. Histologically, the multi-speaker exposure caused more severe brain injury than the single-speaker exposure. Pups in the multi-speaker group showed frequent subarachnoid hemorrhages and cortical microvascular bleeding in the temporal lobes, whereas these lesions were mild or infrequent in the single-speaker group and absent in controls. Neurons in noise-exposed brains displayed morphological signs of degeneration (shrunken, angulated cell bodies with pyknotic nuclei and condensed cytoplasm), which were markedly pronounced in the multi-speaker group. Stereological cell counting revealed a significant increase in apoptotic neuron density in both sound-exposed groups, with the multi-speaker group highest. For example, in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, the mean density of TUNEL-positive (degenerating) neurons was 13,450 ± 1,560 per mm Conclusion: Identical musical noise caused substantially more neurodegeneration in the developing brain when delivered as complex wave interference from multiple speakers rather than as a single-source sound of the same intensity. Complex multisource waveforms appear to amplify the harmful effects of noise on neonatal brain tissue, likely through interference-driven pressure fluctuations. These findings have clinical and public health implications, suggesting that current noise exposure guidelines should consider not only sound intensity and duration but also the acoustic complexity and source configuration, especially to protect vulnerable populations such as infants and children from high-intensity multisource noise environments.
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