A subjective survey on perceived environmental quality has been carried out on 51 secondary-school classrooms, some of which have been acoustically renovated, and acoustical measurements were carried out in eight of the 51 classrooms, these eight being representative of the different types of classrooms that are the subject of the survey. A questionnaire, which included items on overall quality and its single aspects such as acoustical, thermal, indoor air and visual quality, has been administered to 1006 students. The students perceived that acoustical and visual quality had the most influence on their school performance and, with the same dissatisfaction for acoustical, thermal and indoor air quality, they attributed more relevance, in the overall quality judgment, to the acoustical condition. Acoustical quality was correlated to speech comprehension, which was correlated to the speech transmission index, even though the index does not reflect all the aspects by which speech comprehension can be influenced. Acoustical satisfaction was lower in nonrenovated classrooms, and one of the most important consequences of poor acoustics was a decrease in concentration. The stronger correlation between average noise disturbance scores and LAmax levels, more than LAeq and LA90, showed that students were more disturbed by intermittent than constant noise.

Coupling transcranial magnetic stimulation with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) allows recording the EEG response to a direct, non-invasive cortical perturbation. However, obtaining a genuine TMS-evoked EEG potential requires controlling for several confounds, among which a main source is represented by the auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) associated to the TMS discharge noise (TMS click). This contaminating factor can be in principle prevented by playing a masking noise through earphones. Here we release TMS Adaptable Auditory Control (TAAC), a highly flexible, open-source, Matlab®-based interface that generates in real-time customized masking noises. TAAC creates noises starting from the stimulator-specific TMS click and tailors them to fit the individual, subject-specific click perception by mixing and manipulating the standard noises in both time and frequency domains. We showed that TAAC allows us to provide standard as well as customized noises able to effectively and safely mask the TMS click. Here, we showcased two customized noises by comparing them to two standard noises previously used in the TMS literature (i.e., a white noise and a noise generated from the stimulator-specific TMS click only). For each, we quantified the Sound Pressure Level (SPL; measured by a Head and Torso Simulator - HATS) required to mask the TMS click in a population of 20 healthy subjects. Both customized noises were effective at safe (according to OSHA and NIOSH safety guidelines) and lower SPLs with respect to standard noises. At odds with previous methods, TAAC allows creating effective and safe masking noises specifically tailored on each TMS device and subject. The combination of TAAC with tools for the real-time visualization of TEPs can help control the influence of auditory confounds also in non-compliant patients. Finally, TAAC is a highly flexible and open-source tool, so it can be further extended to meet different experimental requirements.

This study explored the effects of wearing face masks on classroom communication. The effects of three different types of face masks (fabric, surgical, and N95 masks) on speech intelligibility (SI) presented to college students in auralized classrooms were evaluated. To simulate realistic classroom conditions, speech stimuli were presented in the presence of speech-shaped noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of +3 dB under two different reverberation times (0.4 s and 3.1 s). The use of fabric masks yielded a significantly greater reduction in SI compared to the other masks. Therefore, surgical masks or N95 masks are recommended in teaching environments.

Objective: Development of an Italian matrix sentence test for the assessment of speech intelligibility in noise. Design: The development of the test included the selection, recording, optimization with level adjustment, and evaluation of speech material. The training effect was assessed adaptively during the evaluation measurements with six lists of 20 sentences, using open- and closed-set response formats. Reference data were established for normal-hearing listeners with adaptive measurements. Equivalence of the test lists was investigated using the open-set response format at three signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Study sample: A total of 55 normal-hearing Italian mother-tongue listeners. Results: The evaluation measurements at fixed SNRs resulted in a mean speech reception threshold (SRT) of − 7.3 ± 0.2 dB SNR and slope of 13.3 ± 1.2 %/dB. The major training effect of 1.5 dB was observed for the first two consecutive measurements. Mean SRTs of − 6.7 ± 0.7 dB SNR and − 7.4 ± 0.7 dB SNR were found from the third to the sixth adaptive measurement for open- and closed-set test response formats, respectively. Conclusions: A good agreement has been found between the SRTs and slope and those of other matrix tests. Since sentences are difficult to memorize, the Italian matrix test is suitable for repeated measurements.

This cross-sectional survey has compared subjective outcomes obtained from workers in shared (2–5 occupants) and open-plan (+5 occupants) offices, related to irrelevant speech, which is the noise that is generated from conversations between colleagues, telephone calls and laughter. Answers from 1078 subjects (55% in shared offices and 45% in open-plan offices) have shown that irrelevant speech increases noise annoyance, decreases work performance, and increases symptoms related to mental health and well-being more in open-plan than in shared offices. Workers often use headphones with music to contrast irrelevant speech in open-plan offices, while they take a break, change their working space, close the door or work from home in shared offices. Being female, when there are more than 20 occupants, and working in southern cities without acoustic treatments in the office, make it more likely for the occupants to be annoyed by irrelevant speech noise in open-plan offices. While, working in southern cities and with acoustic treatments in the office makes it more likely that noise annoyance will be reported in shared offices. Finally, more than 70% of the interviewed in open-plan offices were willing to reduce their voice volumes when advised by a noise monitoring system with a lighting feedback.

Several studies have shown so far that poor acoustics inside classrooms negatively affects the teaching and learning processes, especially at the lowest grades of education. However, the extent to which noise exposure or excessive reverberation affect well-being of children at school in their early childhood is still unanswered, as well as their awareness of noise disturbance. This work is a pilot study to investigate to which extent classroom acoustics affects the perceived well-being and noise disturbance in first graders. About 330 pupils aged from 6 to 7 years participated in the study. They belonged to 20 classes of 10 primary schools located in Torino (Italy), where room acoustic measurements were performed and where noise level was monitored during classes. The school buildings and the classrooms were balanced between socioeconomic status and acoustic conditions. Trained experimenters administered questionnaires in each class, where pupils answered all together during the last month of the school year (May). Questions included the happiness scale, subscales assessing self-esteem, emotional health, relationship at home and with friends, enjoyment of school, intensity and noise disturbance due to different sound sources, and quality of voice. The findings of the study suggest that long reverberation times, which are associated with poor classroom acoustics as they generate higher noise levels and degraded speech intelligibility, bring pupils to a reduced perception of having fun and being happy with themselves. Furthermore, bad classroom acoustics is also related to an increased perception of noise intensity and disturbance, particularly in the case of traffic noise and noise from adjacent school environments. Finally, happy pupils reported a higher perception of noise disturbance under bad classroom acoustic conditions, whereas unhappy pupils only reported complaints in bad classroom acoustics with respect to the perception of pleasances with himself or herself and of fitting in at school. Being a mother tongue speaker is a characteristic of children that brings more chances of attending classes in good acoustics, of being less disturbed, and of having more well-being, and richer districts presented better acoustic conditions, in turn resulting in richer districts also revealing a greater perception of well-being.