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Τρίτη 4 Σεπτεμβρίου 2018
Study Warns of the Unintended Effects of White Noise Therapy for Tinnitus
Noise exposure therapies may be doing more harm than good, suggested a review article recently published in JAMA Otolaryngology. While sound therapies like white noise provide short-term relief for people with various conditions, including tinnitus, they may undermine the overall functional and structural integrity of the brain, and even accelerate its aging.
Tinnitus affects over 50 million people in the United States. While there is no cure for this disabling condition, sound therapy is one of the most common approaches to manage tinnitus. In fact, there is some evidence that point to the benefits of noise-based sound therapy in providing relief from disturbing tinnitus percepts via auditory masking. However, neuroscientists from University of California San Francisco and with Posit Science argue that the potential adverse effects of auditory masking via noise therapy might actually outweigh its benefits.
"Increasing evidence shows that the brain rewires for the worse when it is fed random information, such as white noise. Neural inhibition is reduced, temporal integration times increase, and cortical representations lose precision," lead author Mouna Attarha, PhD, told The Hearing Journal. "These maladaptive changes in the brain have consequences that, with time, exacerbate the tinnitus, degrade functioning of the auditory system, and compromise other important cognitive processes, such as language comprehension. A therapeutic strategy so often recommended needs to be more fully understood, including its unintended and often overlooked consequences."
Evaluating therapies in the context of brain health and cognition is vital, noted the authors. "We became interested in writing this editorial after noting widespread use of white noise generators by health professionals across a number of settings – hospitals, treatment centers, therapy offices, ICUs," Attarha shared.
Noting the need for alternative therapies, the authors suggest exploring the potential of structure sounds and other strategies that don't have a negative impact on the brain.
"Health professionals should have a sense of how repeated exposure to randomly-generated information, even at low volume levels, remodels the brain and should offer structured sounds as the alternative," Attarha suggested. "Structured sounds – such as music and speech – can successfully mask or "cover" phantom sounds heard in the head without compromising the structural and functional integrity of the brain. Given how distressing tinnitus can be to some, a treatment program could also include emerging interventions to the extent that those interventions show initial efficacy and demonstrate low-risk."
These treatment programs include validated computerized brain training and stimulus timing dependent plasticity. "Ultimately, the resolution of tinnitus will require programs that can remodel and restore the organization of the brain," Attarha noted.
Published: 9/4/2018 11:43:00 AM
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Study Warns of the Unintended Effects of White Noise Therapy for Tinnitus
Noise exposure therapies may be doing more harm than good, suggested a review article recently published in JAMA Otolaryngology. While sound therapies like white noise provide short-term relief for people with various conditions, including tinnitus, they may undermine the overall functional and structural integrity of the brain, and even accelerate its aging.
Tinnitus affects over 50 million people in the United States. While there is no cure for this disabling condition, sound therapy is one of the most common approaches to manage tinnitus. In fact, there is some evidence that point to the benefits of noise-based sound therapy in providing relief from disturbing tinnitus percepts via auditory masking. However, neuroscientists from University of California San Francisco and with Posit Science argue that the potential adverse effects of auditory masking via noise therapy might actually outweigh its benefits.
"Increasing evidence shows that the brain rewires for the worse when it is fed random information, such as white noise. Neural inhibition is reduced, temporal integration times increase, and cortical representations lose precision," lead author Mouna Attarha, PhD, told The Hearing Journal. "These maladaptive changes in the brain have consequences that, with time, exacerbate the tinnitus, degrade functioning of the auditory system, and compromise other important cognitive processes, such as language comprehension. A therapeutic strategy so often recommended needs to be more fully understood, including its unintended and often overlooked consequences."
Evaluating therapies in the context of brain health and cognition is vital, noted the authors. "We became interested in writing this editorial after noting widespread use of white noise generators by health professionals across a number of settings – hospitals, treatment centers, therapy offices, ICUs," Attarha shared.
Noting the need for alternative therapies, the authors suggest exploring the potential of structure sounds and other strategies that don't have a negative impact on the brain.
"Health professionals should have a sense of how repeated exposure to randomly-generated information, even at low volume levels, remodels the brain and should offer structured sounds as the alternative," Attarha suggested. "Structured sounds – such as music and speech – can successfully mask or "cover" phantom sounds heard in the head without compromising the structural and functional integrity of the brain. Given how distressing tinnitus can be to some, a treatment program could also include emerging interventions to the extent that those interventions show initial efficacy and demonstrate low-risk."
These treatment programs include validated computerized brain training and stimulus timing dependent plasticity. "Ultimately, the resolution of tinnitus will require programs that can remodel and restore the organization of the brain," Attarha noted.
Published: 9/4/2018 11:43:00 AM
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Exploring the Effects of Imitating Hand Gestures and Head Nods on L1 and L2 Mandarin Tone Production
Purpose
This study investigated the impact of metaphoric actions—head nods and hand gestures—in producing Mandarin tones for first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers.
Method
In 2 experiments, participants imitated videos of Mandarin tones produced under 3 conditions: (a) speech alone, (b) speech + head nods, and (c) speech + hand gestures. Fundamental frequency was recorded for both L1 (Experiment 1) and L2 (Experiment 2a) speakers, and the output of the L2 speakers was rated for tonal accuracy by 7 native Mandarin judges (Experiment 2b).
Results
Experiment 1 showed that 12 L1 speakers' fundamental frequency spectral data did not differ among the 3 conditions. In Experiment 2a, the conditions did not affect the production of 24 English speakers for the most part, but there was some evidence that hand gestures helped Tone 4. In Experiment 2b, native Mandarin judges found limited conditional differences in L2 productions, with Tone 3 showing a slight head nods benefit in a subset of “correct” L2 tokens.
Conclusion
Results suggest that metaphoric bodily actions do not influence the lowest levels of L1 speech production in a tonal language and may play a very modest role during preliminary L2 learning.from #Audiology via ola Kala on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2LWYoTO
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Exploring the Effects of Imitating Hand Gestures and Head Nods on L1 and L2 Mandarin Tone Production
Purpose
This study investigated the impact of metaphoric actions—head nods and hand gestures—in producing Mandarin tones for first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers.
Method
In 2 experiments, participants imitated videos of Mandarin tones produced under 3 conditions: (a) speech alone, (b) speech + head nods, and (c) speech + hand gestures. Fundamental frequency was recorded for both L1 (Experiment 1) and L2 (Experiment 2a) speakers, and the output of the L2 speakers was rated for tonal accuracy by 7 native Mandarin judges (Experiment 2b).
Results
Experiment 1 showed that 12 L1 speakers' fundamental frequency spectral data did not differ among the 3 conditions. In Experiment 2a, the conditions did not affect the production of 24 English speakers for the most part, but there was some evidence that hand gestures helped Tone 4. In Experiment 2b, native Mandarin judges found limited conditional differences in L2 productions, with Tone 3 showing a slight head nods benefit in a subset of “correct” L2 tokens.
Conclusion
Results suggest that metaphoric bodily actions do not influence the lowest levels of L1 speech production in a tonal language and may play a very modest role during preliminary L2 learning.from #Audiology via ola Kala on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2LWYoTO
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