SoundCure Serenade Tinnitus Treatment System

It sounds not unlike the Universal Sound Therapy that Calin and I have been using. I'd like to know more about this, too! The sound therapy does indeed provide relief by kind of distracting the brain to listen to another tone, so that you're less conscious of the tinnitus.

Hope we hear more about this Serenade system in the near future!
 
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243150.php

This sounds similar and has a small trial to back it up.
Tha_b_man -
(Those hyphens are hard to pronounce!).

The article you found is about the Acoustic Neuromodulation Device, which Joe wrote has been following. See his thread at https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...n-a-new-treatment-for-tinnitus.219/#post-1564

I asked my audiologist to find if this device is for sale in the U.S. She contacted the company in Germany. They have plans to market this device in the U.S. in 2013.

I feel like this thing may be my only hope for reducing my tinnitus.
 
Karl,

I believe the serenade device is available in the US. The company is based in San Jose, Ca. When I was searching the web about this device, I found a website that played samples. My kids were buzzing around so it didn't have my complete attention but I swear when I played the samples it affected my tinnitus in a positive way. Which gave me a great feeling of hope that have not had in a very long time.
 
(The below is from http://www.soundcure.com who sell the serenade device)
A Brief History of S-Tones®
In 2006, researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) began working with a patient with a cochlear implant who was suffering from tinnitus. Traditional treatment approaches were attempted, but failed to provide relief. They applied a low frequency sound, at a comfortable loudness via the patient's cochlear implant and discovered that this relieved the patient's tinnitus–for the first time in two years,[1] all he heard was a calming, pleasant tone produced by the low-rate stimulus. Transferring this technology from a cochlear implant to sounds anyone could hear led to the creation of S-Tones, the foundation of the SoundCure Serenade® technology.

neuron-schematic-1-210x115.jpg

S-Tones are Temporally Patterned Sounds

S-Tones are designed to produce synchronized, robust neural activity in the auditory cortex. Figure 1 shows that patterned sounds that are too slow or too fast are not effective, but at the right rate cause neurons to fire synchronously to the sound stimulus.[2]
S-Tones in Action

Studies by researchers suggest that the use of S-Tones may play a role in promoting tinnitus suppression. According to a UCI researcher, "The mechanisms underlying tinnitus suppression are different from those in tinnitus masking. Masking attempts to divert a patient's attention away from the tinnitus. Suppression is a physiologic process where sounds—in this case, patterned sounds—may likely be modulating the activity of the auditory cortex and interrupting tinnitus generation."[3]

Further, synchronized neural activity is described this way in a research paper:
"Within 30 seconds, the subject started to experience some tinnitus suppression and by 120 seconds reported being unable to hear his tinnitus. This is an example of 100% suppression."[3]

S-Tones do not need to be loud to be effective, researchers have discovered: "A sound is presented that is softer than the level of the tinnitus, which may completely eliminate the perception of the tinnitus. The overall level of the sound environment is less than the tinnitus alone."[3]
Research is ongoing and the treatment sounds continue to be studied.
Our Sound Therapy Suite

Tinnitus is not a simple condition that can be addressed with a one-size-fits-all approach. Therefore SoundCure offers a variety of sound therapy tracks from which your audiologist can choose to treat your unique condition. SoundCure's unique S-Tones, custom narrowband stimuli, and broadband sounds are all provided to enable your physician to find the most effective solution for you.

1. Zeng et al., Tinnitus Suppression by Low-Rate Electric Stimulation and its Electrophysiological Mechanisms. Hearing Research. 2011 Jul; 2007(1-2): 61-6.
2. Figure adapted from: Liang et al., Neural Representations of Sinusoidal Amplitude and Frequency Modulations in the Primary Auditory Cortex of Awake Primates. J Neurophysiol. 2002; 87:2237-2261.
3. Reavis et al., Patterned Sound Therapy for the Treatment of Tinnitus. The Hearing Journal. 2010 Nov; 63 (11): 21-24.
 
Tha-b-man,
I'm unable to hear the tones on that link. Is there a problem with the link, or are the tones just too high-pitched for me to hear? ;) Anyone else?
 
Thank you, Molan!

Honestly, I was looking for something exactly like this. I was about to try wiring up my own oscillator from a Radio Shack kit, to try listening to a 4 kHz tone to match the one in my head.
 
this therapy seems to go against the notched music approach to treating tinnitus

one apprach plays sounds that approximate the percieved tinnitus frequencies and thus the part of the hearing spectrum lost to cochlear damage

the other treatment aims to fill the ear with all the frequencies that are outside the damaged zone and specifically excluding tinnitus and hearing loss frequencies

---they cant both be right... can they? whats going on here??
 
Molan -
I downloaded the tone generator, and it's great.

This moring I've been doing some very interesting experiments with the tone generator. (Please note my Young Frankenstein avatar wearing as stethescope. An appropriate image for these experiments.):

My tinnitus is a constant ringing pitch in my right ear at 4 kHz. I know this from my audiograms. There is a slight buzz component in my ring.
I have matched the ringing with the tonal generator at about 4024 Hz.

There are 4 wave pattern choices in the tone generator: Sine wave, square wave, triangle wave, sawtooth wave. The square, triangle and sawtooth shaped waves have a "buzz". I have matched my own buzz component with the triangle wave.

I have turned the volume down until I cannot hear the tone generator. When I wear one headphone on my non-tinnitus ear, I hear the tone. When I wear the headphone on my tinnitus ear, I cannot hear the tone. This seems to prove that I have hearing loss at the frequency I have tinnitus.

I wore the hearphone only on my tinnitus ear, at barely audible volume for about an hour. I am not quite certain if this helped my tinnitus, or if it canceled out the tinnitus - yet. It would seem, based on masking theories, that it should cancel the tinnitus.

There would appear to be several possibilities for this tonal generator. Perhaps the appropriate waveform can be mixed with music at a very low volume, just for the right ear. I may be able to make customizable masking for my particular tinnitus.
 
this therapy seems to go against the notched music approach to treating tinnitus

one apprach plays sounds that approximate the percieved tinnitus frequencies and thus the part of the hearing spectrum lost to cochlear damage

the other treatment aims to fill the ear with all the frequencies that are outside the damaged zone and specifically excluding tinnitus and hearing loss frequencies

---they cant both be right... can they? whats going on here??

mock T -

I'm also confused. We're the blind leading the blind, remember?

According to my audiologist, years ago, when they first tried to mask tinnitus they tried to use the exact frequency. She said that some people found this disturbing. They later discovered that white noise is less disturbing and has more success.

What interests me is the recent news about the Acoustic CR Neuromodulation device, invented in Germany. The ACN uses a barely audible tone that matches the tinnitus frequency. Reportedly, the ACN is very effective. It has not yet been marketed in America.

Basically, I'm trying to make my own Acoustic CR Neuromodulation device.
 
Hi All, I've just started hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Warsaw. I take also steroid Encorton and Polvertic as a supplement to HO. The most annoying thing inside hyperbaric chamber is noise. one session takes 1,5 h and this noise is really troublesome. anyway I feel better now. Hopefully it is not just better mood :) ... I steel hear ringing :(
 
Hey Karl no probs! Happy to help!

You might be interested to know I've just began researching something called the Tomatis method. It's very old but seems to have been quite effective for some people with hearing loss and Tinnitus. I have only just found out about it so I cannot comment until I have obviously tried it myself but thought I would give people a heads up!

To sum it up it plays classical music through specific high frequencys. it's completely science based so no woo woo mumbo jumbo or anything. Playing this for a certain amount of hours for each day over weeks and months apparently has a miraculous effect on the brain in some very intrigueing ways. Some seem to have reported it has cured their Tinnitus and others claim they have recovered their hearing loss! I still don't quite understand it myself but am going through a book on it that was released in 1984!

If you are interested in reading all about it they have a copy on Amazon for only $1!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0969168705/?tag=tinntalk-20


I have no idea if it is any good or just a scam but will certainly look at giving it a go. Trouble is 30 years ago you could get the music quite cheaply. Now it seems WAY too expensive. Will keep everyone updated if I give it a try.
 
...
You might be interested to know I've just began researching something called the Tomatis method. ...
To sum it up it plays classical music through specific high frequencys. it's completely science based... Some seem to have reported it has cured their Tinnitus and others claim they have recovered their hearing loss! ...

Molan -

There is a device called Neuronmonics (not quite sure about the spelling), that uses the method you describe. With Neuronmonics you basically listen to 4 hours of classical music that has been mixed with a masking track. This device costs $5000. Some people call it the $5000 IPod.

That's my impression about the latest gadget, "Serenade". I think it also uses a particular masking track that isn't white noise. Something like there are 4 choices of tracks? It's hard to find out what the Serenade sounds like. If it only involves a masking track, the company investors are probably guarding the sound. It probably also costs a lot.

I'm getting the impression that the "Tinnitus Business" is getting hot on Wall Street. There seem to be a lot of companies looking for investors, testing the waters for how much they can squeeze out of us. Gone are the days of doing things for the Good of Man, I'm afraid.

I may have to be cautious about this particular experiment. In theory, it would seem that hearing the same frequency as the tinnitus could go two ways: 1. Could be good or 2. Could be bad.

If the volume is really low, seems like it can't hurt. But then again, I'm not a doctor,...
 
Hey Karl, yes I'm aware of Neuronmonics (not sure how to spell it either lol) I don't have the Tomatis book in front of me but how it differs is something to do with high frequency sounds when you are in the womb and something about the emotional impact of specific frequenicies that that are much more natural and have a greater impact then Neuromonics. That is what has been claimed anyway I cannot say if it is true or not.

What is true though is that the Tomatis method is a heck of alot cheaper and has been claimed to be more natural and more effective. So this is why I'm currently researching it. Correct me if I'm wrong but no-one has claimed to have had their Tinnitus cured or hearing loss restored by Neuronomics have they? I can't remember off the top of my head.

I completelty agree with you about the 'Tinnitus business' situation. If you see the amount of patents for treatments which only really suppres the symptoms and seem to do nothing about the cause. More reason why we Tinnitus sufferers have to try and cure ourselves!!!
 
Thanks, Don! I thought it was just me....

Anyway, I'd still like to hear some of the sample tones. I'm currently using Universal Sound Therapy, which I believe may be similar. It has at least taken the edge off my tinnitus. I'd like to know how this is different.
 
Karl...im confused too, but my guess is (guess!) any sound enrichment program helps to beat back the phantom "noises" as long as one does not inflict damage

maybe this is why so many people report their is is often at its worst soon after waking up in the morning?!

again... just guessing

best wishes
mock turtle
 
I sent an e-mail to the people at Dichonics (see Joe's info above) to see if they would give me pricing information. If I get any information, I'll share it here.
 

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