Birdsong with gentle wind selectively benefits stimulus interference but not response or multisource interference: Evidence from EEG

Despite the growing threat of urban noise pollution to cognitive health, empirical evidence regarding the cognitive benefits of natural sounds remains mixed. The Specificity Hypothesis addresses this by proposing that such benefits are selective, benefiting only those cognitive functions that are highly matched with directed attention. Interference control is a cognitive function closely linked to directed attention and comprises three types: stimulus interference, response interference, and multisource interference. These types differ in their relationship with directed attention. However, whether natural sounds produce differential effects on distinct types of interference control remains unclear. The present study employed electroencephalography to examine the effects of natural sounds such as birdsong with gentle wind on distinct types of interference control. Thirty-nine participants performed the multi-source interference task while listening to either birdsong with gentle wind or an urban sound dominated by machine noise, with electroencephalography recorded simultaneously. Behavioral results showed no significant differences between the two sound stimuli across any type of interference control. Neurophysiological results revealed that birdsong with gentle wind significantly enhanced alpha oscillations, N200, and N450 amplitudes in the stimulus interference condition, whereas no significant changes in any neural measure were observed in the response interference or multisource interference conditions. Exploratory correlation analyses suggested that the enhancements of N200 and N450 were correlated with behavioral improvement in stimulus interference. These findings indicate that birdsong with gentle wind selectively supports the resolution of stimulus interference, while it does not significantly modulate response interference or multisource interference in the current experimental conditions. This finding suggests that future soundscape design should reconsider the general utility of this type of natural sound and pay more attention to the alignment between the cognitive demands of the task context and its benefits.