In Sound Health
ISBN 9789395515801

Highlights

Notes

  

Preface

Sound has played a significant role in the evolution of all living creatures on this planet. As a result, human hearing is a mega power acquired over 370 million years of evolution. Different species have varying hearing and sound processing abilities, configured as per need and purpose. In addition, the balance mechanism is also regulated by the hearing system. Though sound has always been an integral part of our day-to-day life, its influence on our health has remarkably changed as a result of industrialization and urbanization. Furthermore, the changes in life pattern to which the current generation is being subjected, places them at a higher risk of developing various health-related problems as result of the ill effects of noise. As by definition, sound which is pleasant could be termed as music, and that which is unpleasant or hurts the ear could be termed as noise. As a consequence, music has a positive influence on all life on earth.

The book is designed to be easy to read and understand, with clear objectives and takeaways for each chapter. The contributors of this book are renowned national and international subject experts and scientists from institutions of excellence with vast experience in the fields of audiology, musicology and medicine.

As the chief editor, it is my privilege and honour to thank each one of them for contributing their knowledge and time to this important project in spite of their busy schedules. I am deeply indebted to Mr Ricky Kej, multi-Grammy Award winner, for his valuable contribution towards this book.

This publication has been made available on an Open Access platform, meaning that it is free to download and be read anywhere in the world and I am grateful to AHPI for enabling this.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the editorial advisors Dr Shantala Hegde and Dr V. C. Shanmuganandan.

Finally, I would like to thank my co-editors Dr Ramesh A. and Deepak Alexander for the roles they played in developing this book in addition to contributing chapters in their areas of specialization.

I also thank all others involved in this project including the book reviewers. My grateful thanks to Mr Shadrach Thangaraj for having shouldered the responsibility of the entire secretarial work, and also to my colleagues in AHPI for their valuable support. As always it has been a pleasure to work with the publishers. Mr Gowrishankar Natesan and his team at Newgen KnowledgeWorks have provided excellent support and advice.

My hope is that this book will serve the purpose it was meant for – sensitizing the community on music, sound and health.

Dr Alexander Thomas

Chief Editor