[The influence of noise on the human central nervous system (author's transl)]

We studied the effects of the road noise on the central nervous system in a group of 40 normal adult subjects. The neurophysiological research included the following parameters: acoustic and visual evoked cortical potentials, percentage of EEG desynchronization, contingent negative variation (CNV) and sleep-EEG. The results showed in every subject a reduction of the amplitude of the acoustic evoked potential recorded during the road noise as against to that one we recorded during normal silence. This fact, also in contrast to the stability of the visual evoked potential during the road noise and the normal silence, permitted to verify the existence of a neuronal occlusion phenomenon interesting the evocative acoustic stimulus when the noise is provided at the same time. The study of the EEG desynchronization during the road noise compared to that one during the normal silence did not give any statistically difference. The study of the CNV gave analogous results. Only if we complete the research with the study of the base-personality of every subject by the Rorschachtest, we found significant differences among the neurphysiological parameters as the EEG desynchronization and the CNV during the normal silence and the noise in relation to the different levels of anxiety and endotensivity of every subject.