Birdsong is good for mental health

Study investigates the influence of birdsong on mood, paranoia, and cognition. Birdsong could be used to prevent mental illness. Claus H Godbersen / Unsplash - When you next hear cheerful twittering of birds, you should stop and listen. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf have shown that birdsong reduces anxiety and irrational thoughts. Their findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports . In the study, the researchers examined how traffic noise and birdsong affect mood, paranoia, and cognitive functioning by carrying out a randomized online experiment with 295 participants. These heard six minutes of either typical traffic noise or birdsong with varying numbers of different traffic sounds or birdsongs.