Tinnitus Treatment Using Shepard Scale Tone Training
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for tinnitus, including sound therapy, provide limited immediate relief and require a long period of time to show effectiveness, failing to adequately alleviate the symptoms that disrupt patients' quality of life.
Innovation Solution
A method involving determining a patient's tinnitus frequency and using a descending Shepard scale of therapeutic tones, including frequencies ranging from an octave higher to lower than the tinnitus frequency, with pauses to randomly introduce the tinnitus frequency, to reduce perception through stimulation pause training.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If sound therapy is used to treat tinnitus, then the treatment is non-invasive and readily accepted by patients, but it takes a long period of time to show effectiveness and offers little immediate relief
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action through structured training sessions with specific pause intervals. The method uses repeated exposure to therapeutic tones separated by controlled pauses, creating a periodic stimulation pattern that accelerates neural adaptation. This periodic structure allows the brain to process and adapt to the therapeutic frequencies more efficiently than continuous sound therapy, reducing the overall treatment time while maintaining patient acceptance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by using broadband noise before presenting the therapeutic narrowband tones. This preliminary broadband noise exposure prepares the auditory system by activating relevant neural pathways and reducing baseline tinnitus perception, making the subsequent narrowband tone therapy more effective and faster-acting. This preparatory step accelerates the overall treatment process.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If traditional sound therapy is used, then the treatment is non-invasive, but it provides limited immediate relief and requires long-term commitment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous sound therapy into discrete training sessions with specific structures. Each session is divided into multiple trials with broadband noise followed by narrowband tones and controlled pauses. This segmentation allows for more intensive, focused treatment periods that produce faster results, reducing the overall duration needed to achieve symptom relief compared to traditional continuous sound therapy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs parameter changes by systematically varying the frequency, intensity, and timing of therapeutic tones based on the patient's specific tinnitus characteristics. The treatment adapts parameters such as bandwidth, center frequency, and pause duration to optimize effectiveness for each individual patient, enabling faster symptom relief in shorter treatment periods.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for treating tinnitus includes the steps of: determining a tinnitus frequency of a patient; selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones which is a descending Shepard scale that includes the tinnitus frequency of the patient and other frequencies ranging from an octave higher than the tinnitus frequency to an octave lower than the tinnitus frequency; and subjecting the patient to several cycles of a stimulation pulse training in which the patient listens to the therapeutic tones played repetitively with a pause between every two cycles, each of the therapeutic tones being played for a time period of 500 milliseconds, one of the therapeutic tones matching the tinnitus frequency of the patient occurring randomly once after stimulus at the beginning of the pause in every four cycles, so as to reduce the patient's perception to tinnitus.