Acoustic Therapy System for Middle-Ear Muscle Regulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), PTSD, and other conditions often experience sound sensitivities, behavioral and autonomic state regulation difficulties, and auditory processing deficits, which are challenging to address due to the lack of diagnostic specificity and the disparate research domains involved in studying these symptoms.
Innovation Solution
The development of acoustic therapy systems and methods that recruit and exercise neural regulation of the middle-ear muscles through processed acoustic stimuli, aiming to rehabilitate the integrated social engagement system by modulating frequency bands to improve auditory processing and reduce sound sensitivities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional separate discipline approaches are used to study sound sensitivities, behavioral regulation, and auditory processing, then each domain can be investigated independently, but the integrated treatment of these interconnected symptoms becomes difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The acoustic therapy system is designed to simultaneously address multiple interconnected symptoms (sound sensitivities, behavioral regulation, auditory processing) through a single integrated intervention platform. The system delivers processed acoustic stimuli that can recruit middle-ear muscle regulation and influence multiple response systems concurrently, making the treatment apparatus universally applicable across previously separate therapeutic domains
2Reliability
If processed acoustic stimuli are delivered to recruit middle-ear muscle regulation, then auditory processing and sound sensitivity are improved, but the system complexity increases due to multiple processing parameters and frequency modulations
Solution Approach 1:
The acoustic therapy system employs dynamic frequency modulation and bandwidth adjustment to optimize the recruitment of middle-ear muscle regulation. The processing parameters including frequency modulation cycles, bandwidth adjustments, and modulation depths are dynamically varied to enhance therapeutic effect while systematically managing the complexity of the acoustic processing requirements
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments are described herein to reduce sound sensitivities, improve state regulation, and/or reduce auditory processing and social engagement deficits in individuals with such deficiencies by recruiting the anti-masking functions of the middle ear muscles in order to optimize the transfer function of the middle ear for the processing of human speech. In certain embodiments, an individual may be subjected to a training protocol comprising one or more training sessions. During each training session, acoustic stimuli are provided to a subject for a period of time, with or without accompanying visual stimulation. A user response may be determined, for example, before beginning the protocol, during a session, after a session, and/or upon completion of the protocol. Such user response may be employed to adjust the acoustic stimulation, and the adjusted acoustic stimulation may be provided to the subject during a subsequent training session (or at a subsequent time within the same training session). The training protocol may end after a predetermined number of training sessions or upon achieving a desired user response. The training session may be characterized by a fixed protocol during which continuous stimulation is presented for a fixed period of time or by an interactive protocol during which the stimulation presentation is dependent on the reactions of the subject.