The Science of Listening

Even Rainer Maria Rilke pondered the sense of hearing beyond his poetry. He considered it the most perilous of the senses. After all, one can close one’s eyes, but never one’s ears.
Sounds reach us constantly: the rustling of leaves, the screech of a saw, an argument next door, or the monotonous hum of a road. Yet why do we find some sounds pleasant and others disturbing?

This is the question explored by researchers in the new research training group MOSAIC, launched under the leadership of RWTH Aachen University, a partner of the Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA). Their goal is to gain a deeper understanding of acoustic wellbeing, how sounds affect body and mind in different contexts.

Among the researchers are two members of JARA: Professor Janina Fels from the Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics (JARA-BRAIN) and Professor Dirk Müller from the Chair of Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate (JARA-ENERGY).
Together with colleagues from architecture, medicine and engineering, they investigate not only the role of loudness, but also perception, emotion, and environmental factors such as light, temperature, and room geometry.

Their work forms part of an interdisciplinary field seeking to understand when sounds become noise – and when they enhance our wellbeing.
Perhaps a line of research very much in the spirit of Rainer Maria Rilke, who knew that one can never truly shut one’s ears.

Original article on the RWTH Aachen website: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir/aktuell/pressemitteilungen/oktober-2025/~bqisye/wie-geraeusche-das-wohlbefinden-beeinflu/?lidx=1