PHILADELPHIA, May 1, 2026 — The 190th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America is coming up on May 11-15, and each day will feature a wide range of newsworthy sessions about the science of sound. We’ve highlighted a few standout sessions below.

Press releases for an additional selection of topics will be shared under embargo during the week of May 4, and conference highlights can be found on social media by searching the #ASA190 hashtag.

Reporters are invited to attend the conference in person at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. To register for free, please email media@aip.org.

Meeting Highlights

Monday, May 11: Emotional listening, early development, and hearing fatigue

• Session 1aAB4: Tracking sustained effects of adverse listening conditions using resting electroencephalography, 9 a.m. ET Adverse listening conditions alter how the brain hears and often lead to fatigue. This talk describes two studies that identify sustained effects that straining to listen has on brain function.
• Session 1aAB5: Early loud noise exposure and background noise shape cognitive and exploratory behavior in mice, 9:20 a.m. ET How do noises early in development affect behavior later in life? This longitudinal study in mice aims to figure it out.
• Session 1pPP2: Single- and dual-task listening effort for word and emotion recognition using emotional and non-emotional stimuli, 1:20 p.m. ET How listening effort varies during speech perception depending on whether listeners focus on what is said (word recognition), how it is said (emotion recognition), or both simultaneously.

Tuesday, May 12: Public spaces, dorms, and everyday molecular sounds

• Session Topic 2aAAb: Acoustics in Public Accommodations Spaces, 8:15 a.m. Public spaces like restaurants, lobbies, and transportation hubs are noisy, but acoustics can teach us how to make them more comfortable for everyone.
• Session 2pAAa2: A Conceptual Framework for Exploring the Effect of Soundscape Perception on Place Attachment in University Dormitories, 1:25 p.m. ET A new academic year is coming up, and fresh college students will be looking for ways to make their dorms feel more like home.
• Session 2pMU1: Molecular sounds, 1:30 p.m. ET By mapping absorption spectra of molecules into audible frequencies, we can “hear” the sounds of compounds like water, salt, sugar, and coffee.

Wednesday, May 13: Pickleball, hearing aids, and animal calls

• Session 3aAB3: From blue jays to blue whales: leveraging bioacoustics foundational models, pretrained on birds, for long-term marine mammal passive acoustic monitoring, 8:40 a.m. ET A machine learning model trained on 14,000 terrestrial species — including birds, mammals, amphibians, and insects — was successfully used to identify whales.
• Session 3aPP6: Spatial Perception with Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids, 9:45 a.m. ET Over-the-counter hearing aids can hinder a user's spatial perception to different degrees, and this study investigates three of these devices to determine their level of disruption.
• Session Topic 3pNS: Pickleball Noise, 1 p.m. ET Pickleball's sudden rise in popularity has been faced with noise complaints and neighborhood disputes. Understanding the sport's acoustics can help develop noise control strategies.

Thursday, May 14: The Liberty Bell, sensory perception, and the evolution of vocal fry

• Session Topic 4aSC: Exploring Creaky Voice/Glottal Fry Across Disciplines, 8 a.m. ET Acousticians, social scientists, and speech experts come together to discuss the evolution of vocal fry and its continued stigma.
• Session 4aMU5: Modal Analysis of a Liberty Bell Replica, 10:10 a.m. ET Discover how analysts used a replica of the Liberty Bell to re-create its historic sound.
• Session 4aNS7: Beyond Odor Intensity: Assessing Sensory Congruence in the Restorative Soundscape of Beitou Thermal Valley, 10:50 a.m. ET How does a valley’s smell impact its sound? Researchers evaluate how non-acoustic factors modulate soundscape perception and propose a design principle prioritizing multisensory coherence over noise or odor reduction.

Friday, May 15: Acoustics of an Indian Temple and optimizing performance spaces

• Session 5aAA8: Acoustics of the Muchukundeswara Temple, 11:30 a.m. ET The Muchukundeswara Temple in the village of Kodumbalur, India, was built in the 10th century, and researchers are using acoustics to study the historic sound quality.
• Session 5aAA9: Eurocentricity is the Achilles Heel of Acoustics: An Acoustical Comparison of Performance Spaces at Union College, 11:45 a.m. ET How can we optimize performance spaces to be inclusive of more types of music and sound?

Learn more about all meeting sessions via ASA's meeting page and in the technical program (topics/times subject to change).

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