Sound therapy is one of the most effective solutions available to treat tinnitus. By employing customized sounds to reduce neural hyperactivity and thus alleviate tinnitus symptoms, this therapy reduces its impact on sufferers.
Participants were exposed to personalized broadband noise generated from their audiometry, with frequencies associated with tinnitus being filtered out, for one hour every day for four months – this approach, known as notch therapy, has proven successful at alleviating symptoms associated with tinnitus distress.
Notch Therapy
Notch Therapy is one of the most effective strategies for alleviating tonal tinnitus, working differently from masking and acceptance therapies that add external noise or distract the listener, by temporarily suppressing sounds within your tinnitus frequency range, which causes the brain to redirect its attention on other sounds – effectively “turning off” your tinnitus for extended periods.
At its core, spectral notch therapy’s success lies in its ability to disrupt neurons that produce your tinnitus through neuronal inhibition called “lateral inhibition.” This technique helps reduce tinnitus pitch while providing relief through other sounds being heard instead.
Researchers used a measure known as the L-hab Gain Factor to gauge therapeutic benefit; this is calculated as the difference between your pre and post therapy scores on Tinnitus Questionnaire 52 (TQ52). When measured against standard amplification therapy approaches at three months and six months respectively, notch fitting was shown to demonstrate significantly greater improvements than standard amplification in L-hab gains.
fNIRS data from this study also confirmed that notched sound could alter cortical blood flow in two areas associated with emotion in the brain: Brodmann area 46 (BA46) and superior temporal gyrus, suggesting these changes may contribute to why tinnitus can often be related to emotion.
Although Notch Therapy can improve tinnitus distress, it should be understood that this form of therapy won’t work for everyone. Your tinnitus must line up with the notched frequency for this therapy to work effectively – otherwise, its benefits will simply disappear, leaving only relaxation exercises and distraction as effective remedies against your condition. Therefore, we advise only using Notch Therapy alongside proven management techniques like relaxation exercises or distraction.
Tailor-Made Notched Music Training (TMNMT)
Tailor-Made Notched Music Training (TMNMT) is one of the most promising sound therapies to reduce tinnitus loudness, using specially filtered music played on any device. The goal of the therapy is to stimulate neural plasticity by providing auditory stimuli that suppress your tinnitus pitch’s frequency – inducing tonotopic brain area activity to stop while simultaneously inhibiting other neurons and helping your mind learn to ignore that particular frequency while paying more attention to other sounds.
The effectiveness of TMNMT has been evaluated through a randomized double-blind clinical trial conducted with 20 people suffering mild hearing loss and distressing tinnitus. The primary goal was to measure reductions in both distress-related distress as well as perception. Visual analog scale changes were monitored through following a consistent schedule for listening to TMNMT over three months.
In the TMNMT study, participants received 1 to 2 hours of daily sound treatment from a personalized music player delivering band-eliminated music signal tailored to each person’s tinnitus frequency. Researchers believed this tailored treatment would decrease tinnitus symptoms by decreasing subjective responses such as loudness and distress; additionally they hoped the filter music would increase positive attention and facilitate neural plasticity.
Studies conducted with the TMNMT demonstrated a significant reduction in both loudness and distress on the TQ12 questionnaire measuring overall tinnitus distress, making this significant as a minimum clinically important difference (MCID) requires changes of at least five points on this measure of overall distress.
It is clear that TMNMT provides effective relief from tinnitus; however, its effects are temporary – within 12 months, both loudness and distress scores returned to their initial values; thus making regular monitoring of symptoms essential after completion of any TMNMT program.
Distraction
Frequency therapy often employs distraction as a strategy to ease tinnitus symptoms. Be it from fan noise at night, soothing music or an app on your phone; any form of external noise has the same effect of masking tinnitus and lessening its significance in daily life. Distraction can be an invaluable behavioral technique used alongside education and therapies like CBT or mindfulness-based approaches to manage bothersome tinnitus symptoms.
Notched music therapy works on the theory that musical tones with modified spectral notches reduce cortical activity associated with the frequency of the tinnitus. Pitch matches are determined using a clinical pitch-matching procedure; participants select one from among multiple 1kHz tones that most closely match their pitch of their tinnitus pitch; EEG and auditory late responses are then recorded to objectively measure distress from this therapy, showing reduced symptoms at all timepoints relative to participants in control groups.
Tinnitus can be an enormously disruptive condition that interferes with daily life, from difficulty sleeping (insomnia) and depression to reduced productivity at work. But many find their condition gradually improving over time – sometimes going away altogether or becoming less troublesome altogether.
Some individuals find it easy to remain busy and divert their focus from their tinnitus; for others it may be more challenging. Sleep is important in managing tinnitus but when intrusive sounds interrupt it can be challenging; frequency therapy provides relief via distraction.
Signia hearing instruments provide static therapy signals designed to alleviate tinnitus symptoms, including white noise, pink noise and speech noise – each customizable in terms of pitch and frequency content – through our Tinnitus Therapy Program. Furthermore, modulated Ocean Wave signals can be used as habituation aids – for more information visit our Tinnitus Therapy Page.
Habituation
As with the refrigerator hum, our brains can adapt and learn to tune out our own tinnitus over time through habituation practices that teach our brains to filter it out. Noise used during this process should not evoke negative feelings as this goal should lead to your tinnitus no longer being perceived by your brain at all.
Studies that use masking (playing sounds to drown out the tinnitus) to promote habituation have demonstrated its efficacy at significantly reducing distress levels within three weeks, measured by changes to TQ12 scores; an objective, clinical measure that compares distress over other symptoms.
Effective masking requires matching noise frequency with that of your tinnitus and listening at a level just quieter than its pitch. White, pink, speech and brownian noises may all work effectively as masking noises; other options could include devices from Signia hearing instruments that play soothing sound throughout the day.
Masking therapy methods such as masking don’t just cover up tinnitus; rather, they work by decreasing the firing rate of neurons involved with hearing the sound that causes it. This physiologic effect makes masking therapy so successful.
Some schools of tinnitus management have integrated directed attention and habituation techniques into their treatment programs; it can also be used as an independent method. Cognitive behavioral therapy, tinnitus retraining therapy, tinnitus activities treatment and progressive tinnitus management all incorporate some form of directed attention or habituation as part of counseling; some methods like partial masking may even use notched music approaches – these practices all feature direct attention or habituation strategies as part of counseling sessions.
