Abstract Sound masking has been applied to improve subjective perception of noise in recent years. This noise control technology could gain better perceptual effects on certain noises with lower cost compared with the traditional noise control technologies. However, the neural mechanisms underlying sound masking are rarely studied. In this study, 19 healthy subjects were recruited to take fMRI scanning and subjective annoyance assessments with the welding noise and the masked welding noise. The fMRI data were collected with block design paradigm for the welding noise and the masked welding noise in two different sessions respectively. Both contrast analysis of the brain activations and seed-based connectivity analysis were performed. The results showed that the noise annoyance was associated with significant brain activation in putamen and ACC but deficient functional connectivity between anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The sound masking led to significantly strong activations in the left superior medial frontal cortex (SMFC), left supplementary motor area (SMA), and increased functional connectivity between the SMFC and parietal lobe, which were associated with positive emotion and improved the perception of the welding noise. This study offered new insights on the underlying neural mechanisms of sound masking effects.

中文翻译：

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通过喷泉声音掩蔽改善焊接噪声感知：来自 fMRI 的见解

摘要 近年来，声音掩蔽已被应用于改善对噪声的主观感知。与传统的噪声控制技术相比，这种噪声控制技术能够以更低的成本对某些噪声获得更好的感知效果。然而，很少研究声音掩蔽的神经机制。在这项研究中，招募了 19 名健康受试者对焊接噪声和隐蔽焊接噪声进行 fMRI 扫描和主观烦恼评估。fMRI 数据是用块设计范例收集的，分别用于两个不同会话中的焊接噪声和掩蔽焊接噪声。进行了大脑激活的对比分析和基于种子的连接分析。结果表明，噪音烦恼与壳核和 ACC 的显着大脑激活有关，但前扣带皮层 (ACC) 和前额叶皮层 (PFC) 之间的功能连接不足。声音掩蔽导致左上内侧额叶皮层 (SMFC)、左辅助运动区 (SMA) 的显着激活，以及 SMFC 和顶叶之间的功能连接增加，这与积极情绪相关并改善了对焊接噪音。这项研究为声音掩蔽效应的潜在神经机制提供了新的见解。左辅助运动区 (SMA)，增加了 SMFC 和顶叶之间的功能连接，这与积极情绪相关并改善了对焊接噪音的感知。这项研究为声音掩蔽效应的潜在神经机制提供了新的见解。左辅助运动区 (SMA)，增加了 SMFC 和顶叶之间的功能连接，这与积极情绪相关并改善了对焊接噪音的感知。这项研究为声音掩蔽效应的潜在神经机制提供了新的见解。