10 Hz Amplitude Modulated Sounds Induce Short-Term Tinnitus Suppression

[Steve]

I have wondered whether an audio engineering aficionado like @Steve has played with binaural beats in the context of tinnitus. I haven't read much about this but I think it could have some interesting implications.

I am working on some audio at the moment and also some amplitude modulation, which effectively is an isochronic beat. I will be playing with some binaural beats audio very soon too, I'll report back on what seems to work and I'll try and get some files out for testing to see what it does for people.

Do you believe that there is a cognitive basis for binaural beats altering brainwaves? There is some research but nothing conclusive that I've found. I have wondered for many years if we can aurally increase Alpha and as a consequence decrease Delta activity. And if this will be effective for tinnitus.

 

[HomeoHebbian]

I am working on some audio at the moment and also some amplitude modulation, which effectively is an isochronic beat. I will be playing with some binaural beats audio very soon too, I'll report back on what seems to work and I'll try and get some files out for testing to see what it does for people.

Do you believe that there is a cognitive basis for binaural beats altering brainwaves? There is some research but nothing conclusive that I've found. I have wondered for many years if we can aurally increase Alpha and as a consequence decrease Delta activity. And if this will be effective for tinnitus.

What I can say for sure is that neurons throughout the auditory pathways in the brain will synchronize to binaural beats in the beta, alpha, theta or delta range. If you can entrain the firing of neurons at that frequency, it should set up a strong network signature at that frequency that would manifest in the low-frequency electric field that could be measured in the head as EEG. My lab does this all the time and it works well. ...although less well in people who struggle to hear speech in noise (which may be something to consider here).

The bigger question is whether the tail can wag the dog. That is, if you induce a rhythm at 10 Hz will you "create" the cognitive states associated with naturally occurring alpha waves (restful relaxation). If sound-induced alpha rhythm is indistinguishable from the naturally occurring alpha, I see no reason why this would not be true. The arrow goes in both directions, thus forcing yourself to smile can make you happier or striking a "power pose" can make you feel more confident.

 

[HomeoHebbian]

I am working on some audio at the moment and also some amplitude modulation, which effectively is an isochronic beat. I will be playing with some binaural beats audio very soon too, I'll report back on what seems to work and I'll try and get some files out for testing to see what it does for people.

Do you believe that there is a cognitive basis for binaural beats altering brainwaves? There is some research but nothing conclusive that I've found. I have wondered for many years if we can aurally increase Alpha and as a consequence decrease Delta activity. And if this will be effective for tinnitus.

@Steve, this paper came up with a clever way to nest a low-frequency binaural rhythm (i.e. dichotic) in the theta/alpha range inside a higher frequency diotic envelope. Could be fun for you to play with this strategy as well.

J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2016 Dec;17(6):591-607. Epub 2016 Sep 14.
Neural Representation of Interaural Time Differences in Humans-an Objective Measure that Matches Behavioural Performance.
Undurraga JA1,2, Haywood NR3,4, Marquardt T4, McAlpine D3,4.

 

[EatMoTacos]

What I can say for sure is that neurons throughout the auditory pathways in the brain will synchronize to binaural beats in the beta, alpha, theta or delta range. If you can entrain the firing of neurons at that frequency, it should set up a strong network signature at that frequency that would manifest in the low-frequency electric field that could be measured in the head as EEG. My lab does this all the time and it works well. ...although less well in people who struggle to hear speech in noise (which may be something to consider here).

The bigger question is whether the tail can wag the dog. That is, if you induce a rhythm at 10 Hz will you "create" the cognitive states associated with naturally occurring alpha waves (restful relaxation). If sound-induced alpha rhythm is indistinguishable from the naturally occurring alpha, I see no reason why this would not be true. The arrow goes in both directions, thus forcing yourself to smile can make you happier or striking a "power pose" can make you feel more confident.

So @HomeoHebbian are we trying to synchronize with our firing neurons in our brains to somewhat the frequency of our Tinnitus to reduce it? Or basically reduce the firing activity? I remember reading this on a different study that they calculated that the firing within our neural network was around the 5Hz range... Can't remember where I read this as I am trying to look for this. Does this make sense?

 

[HomeoHebbian]

@EatMoTacos

So @HomeoHebbian are we trying to synchronize with our firing neurons in our brains to somewhat the frequency of our Tinnitus to reduce it? Or basically reduce the firing activity? I remember reading this on a different study that they calculated that the firing within our neural network was around the 5Hz range... Can't remember where I read this as I am trying to look for this. Does this make sense?

Hey @EatMoTacos, no, sorry, the point of that last discussion with @Steve drifted a little bit from the topic of masking and tinnitus pitch masking. To your question, there is no single mode of temporal activity in the brain. Individual neurons can fire as rapidly as 1000 times per second (1000 Hz) or very very infrequently. If you put an electrode on the scalp and measure the low-frequency electric field from the head (also known as an EEG recording) you can see peaks in the power spectrum that correspond to different cognitive states. Focused concentration is associated with power in the beta band (~20 Hz), quiet relaxation with power in the alpha band (~10 Hz) etc. etc. We were talking about whether it was possible to induce an alpha rhythm - and hence artificially induce a feeling of greater calm and relaxation - by getting neurons in the auditory pathway to synchronize at 10 Hz. This may be part of the effect described by the original paper that you mentioned to start this thread. @Steve and I were discussing whether the 10Hz synchronization signal might be better delivered as a binaural beat instead of the modulating the sound pressure envelope at 10 Hz.

The human hearing range spans roughly 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Many people hear a tonal tinnitus that they match to ~12,000 Hz. That doesn't mean that neurons are firing at 12,000 Hz. The neural "code" for our perception of pitch is not that direct. Hope that makes sense.

 

[EatMoTacos]

@EatMoTacos


Hey @EatMoTacos, no, sorry, the point of that last discussion with @Steve drifted a little bit from the topic of masking and tinnitus pitch masking. To your question, there is no single mode of temporal activity in the brain. Individual neurons can fire as rapidly as 1000 times per second (1000 Hz) or very very infrequently. If you put an electrode on the scalp and measure the low-frequency electric field from the head (also known as an EEG recording) you can see peaks in the power spectrum that correspond to different cognitive states. Focused concentration is associated with power in the beta band (~20 Hz), quiet relaxation with power in the alpha band (~10 Hz) etc. etc. We were talking about whether it was possible to induce an alpha rhythm - and hence artificially induce a feeling of greater calm and relaxation - by getting neurons in the auditory pathway to synchronize at 10 Hz. This may be part of the effect described by the original paper that you mentioned to start this thread. @Steve and I were discussing whether the 10Hz synchronization signal might be better delivered as a binaural beat instead of the modulating the sound pressure envelope at 10 Hz.

The human hearing range spans roughly 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Many people hear a tonal tinnitus that they match to ~12,000 Hz. That doesn't mean that neurons are firing at 12,000 Hz. The neural "code" for our perception of pitch is not that direct. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the explanation makes things a bit more clearly now. I'm still learning all of this and it's great that you have the time to teach us this, and also just to add I'm not concerned if the thread drifts a bit off topic (unlike some people who are picky about that) I believe the more information the merrier. So thank you.

 

[Reinier]

In the past I have listened to audio tracks that supposed to induce lucid dreaming. If I understand correct this is also done with this binaural method. I do seem to remember 10 Hz was the frequency to try to get into this dream state.
Unfortunately for me the tinnitus only got worse. This could very well be the audio contents and not the 10 Hz.
Or is this lucid dreaming something completely different?

 

[Samir]

Hi Samir, you'll have to give me a little more context for what you mean by "binaural fusion".

I'm sorry that I kept you waiting. The thing is, when I talk to people that have seemingly normal audiograms and tinnitus, they all seem to have about 10 dB HL lateral deltas at or near their perceived tinnitus frequency. Is that negligable? Is it within the margin of error? My thinking is that relatively large deltas like that drive the auditory system into developing tinnitus in an attempt to balance out the difference. I think it is more likely so than in equilateral hearing loss. How many unilaterally deaf people in the world have chronic tinnitus? What statistic is there on that?

 

[Frédéric]

I found this article today, see attached file.
Comparison of Amplitude Modulated Sounds and Pure Tones at the Tinnitus Frequency: Residual Tinnitus Suppression and Stimulus Evaluation

 

[Bndsmheowqhe]

Is this what this person is describing?

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-invented-a-sound-that-knocked-out-my-tinnitus.33001/

 

[GregCA]

Is this what this person is describing?

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-invented-a-sound-that-knocked-out-my-tinnitus.33001/

No

 

[Bndsmheowqhe]

No

What's different specifically? I know you have on on going feud with him.

 

[GregCA]

What's different specifically? I know you have on on going feud with him.

What's different? Pretty much everything.

Other than being composed of completely different "base bricks", the major difference is that his sound is common to everyone (everyone uses the same), while the sounds in the study are customized to each patient, as they target specific frequencies.

 

[mikki_]

What tools do you use to generate modulated sounds? I found this one for Android but user interface requires some audio engineering understanding. I am using this to match my tinnitus frequency as my tinnitus is no longer tonal:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keuwl.functiongenerator&hl=en

 

[Autumnly]

Amplitude Modulated Noise for Tinnitus Suppression in Tonal and Noise-Like Tinnitus
Schoisswohl S.a · Arnds J.a · Schecklmann M.a · Langguth B.a · Schlee W.a · Neff P.a,b
© 2020 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel

Background: The phenomenon of short-term tinnitus suppression by different forms of acoustic stimulation is referred to as residual inhibition (RI). RI can be triggered in the majority of tinnitus cases and was found to be depending on the used intensity, length or types of sounds. Past research already stressed the impact of noise stimulation as well as the superiority of amplitude modulated (AM) pure tones at the individual tinnitus frequency for RI in tonal tinnitus. Recently a novel approach for the determination of noise-like tinnitus characteristics was proposed.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether in participants with noise-like tinnitus RI can be increased by AM noise stimuli according to the individual tinnitus frequency range.

Methods: For this purpose the individual tinnitus characteristics (noise-like and tonal tinnitus) of 29 people affected by tinnitus (mean age = 55.59, 7 females, mean tinnitus duration = 159.97 months) were assessed via customizable noise-band matching. The objective was to generate bandpass filtered stimuli according to the individual tinnitus sound (individualized bandpass filtered [IBP] sounds). Subsequently, various stimuli differing in bandpass filtering and AM were tested with respect to their potential to induce RI. Participants were acoustically stimulated with 7 different types of stimuli for 3 min each and had to rate the loudness of their tinnitus after each stimuli.

Results: Results indicate a general efficacy of noise stimuli for the temporary suppression of tinnitus, but no significant differences between AM and unmodulated IBP. Significantly better effects were observed for the subgroup with noise-like tinnitus (n = 14), especially directly after stimulation offset.

Conclusions: The study at hand provides further insights in potential mechanisms behind RI for different types of tinnitus. Beyond that, derived principles may qualify for new or extend current tinnitus sound therapies.

 

[Sevv]

My T get's suppressed by high-pitched anti-animal traps (sound is somewhere at the 15-16k Hertz range). Takes about 30 seconds to return to it's normal level afterwards.

 

[Ozwel]

For me, after listening to my sounds, white noise, or notched or even nature sounds, after stopping I have brief moments of silence. I believe this is the basis of successful use of sounds, where over time these brief moments of silence provide the relief you need to habituate. I still hear my tinnitus but it's no longer controlling my life and I'm functioning 100% as my old self before tinnitus and believe me, like most of us here, I perceive mine as being particularly loud. I know it's not but I think it is but the trick is to just go with the flow and get busy living life.

"Funny" because it's the opposite for me:

Playing white noise for minutes, hours or a full night is fine, but when I'm stopping the white noise and switch to room silence, I feel like my tinnitus explodes.