Thanks Victor. I agree that many environmental factors such as noise, but also air quality, thermal comfort, and others, have been relatively underexamined in the managerial literature. This is somewhat surprising given that industry often spends millions improving workplace environments.
In the paper below published in the Journal of Building and Environment (the leading journal in the field, something akin to AMJ), we demonstrate the effects of traffic noise and the corrective impact of automated soundscaping with nature sounds on mental fatigue and restoration.
Importantly: we examine this using self-assessment, performance measures, and objective physiological responses (heart rate variability).
Unfortunately, this rich literature often goes unnoticed by management scholars, who rarely read outside the FT-50 ��.
Interestingly again, this attracted the interest of business who want to use our method to assess their office spaces.
Jabar, S. B., Lee, K. F. A., Chan, E., Ang, J. W. A., Lam, B., Boey, V., ... & Christopoulos, G. (2025). Augmented soundscaping improves psychophysiological markers of mental fatigue and recovery. Building and Environment, 113873.
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Georgios Christopoulos, Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Provost's Chair in Organizational Neuroscience
Associate Professor, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Research Director, Culture Science Innovations
NTU-IRB Deputy Chair (Social Behavioral Education)
Director, NTU-IGP Program in Neuroscience
Decision, Environmental, and Organizational Neuroscience LAB (deonlab)
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Original Message:
Sent: 3/10/2026 11:04:00 PM
From: Victor (Vik) Perez
Subject: Everyday sound environments and cognitive regulation
Dear colleagues,
Organizational neuroscience research has provided important insights into how neural processes shape attention, self-regulation and decision-making in work environments. One environmental factor that may deserve more attention is the role of everyday sound environments in shaping these cognitive dynamics.
Modern work increasingly occurs within continuous auditory environments - music, podcasts and ambient soundtracks used to regulate mood, focus or energy. This raises an interesting conceptual issue: how might persistent auditory environments shape the neural and cognitive conditions under which attention and reflective thinking unfold?
I recently reflected on this broader question in a short public-facing article drawing on insights from neuroscience and cognitive psychology:
What the constant sound of modern life is doing to our minds
https://theconversation.com/what-the-constant-sound-of-modern-life-is-doing-to-our-minds-276486
While written for a general audience, the issue may intersect with questions about how environmental stimuli influence attentional stability and cognitive regulation in contemporary work environments.
I would be very interested to hear whether colleagues have encountered related work exploring how sound environments interact with cognitive or neural processes relevant to work and decision-making.
Best regards,
Victor (Vik) Perez
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Victor (Vik) Perez
Vik Perez Person
Tampere
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