Efficacy of Sound Therapy for Tinnitus Using an Enriched Acoustic Environment with Hearing-Loss Matched Broadband Noise

Background: Tinnitus is a rather heterogeneous chronic condition/disorder which is difficult to treat. Some tinnitus treatments combine sound therapy with counselling. The main goal of this study is to report the efficacy of a customized sound therapy combined with counselling on a cohort of 83 tinnitus patients. Methods: 119 tinnitus subjects, recruited between January 2018 and June 2021, were subjected to a treatment consisting of a combination of an initial counselling session and four-month sound therapy. The sound stimulus was a personalized broadband noise colored by the audiometry of the subjects. These stimuli were given to the patients in mp3 format to be heard 1 h per day over 4 months. The tinnitus severity of the patients was evaluated monthly through the validated Spanish version of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory. Results: Of the patients, 30% (36 of 119) withdrew from the treatment before finishing, and 96% (80 of 83) of the subjects completing the therapy attained some relief after 4 months. The overall average THI decrease of these 80 participants was 23. However, when the THI was analyzed by severity scales, it was found that patients with initial mild, moderate, severe and catastrophic handicap had an average THI decrease of 14, 20, 31 and 42 points, respectively. Thus, the average THI decrease depended on the baseline severity scale of patients. Conclusions: Consequently, the proposed treatment was demonstrated to be effective in providing clinically relevant relief in tinnitus distress patients in just 4 months.

Persepsi Mahasiswa Tingkat Menengah terhadap Perubahan Frekuensi dan Waktu Titik Lekuk Nada Turun-Naik Bahasa Mandarin

<p><strong>The tone is a phonetic characteristic of Chinese which is very important to master because it has a meaning-distinguishing function. For Indonesian students, Chinese tone, especially tone 2 and tone 3 is quite difficult to master both in perception and pronunciation. This study aims to measure the level of sensitivity and type of perception of students with intermediate level Chinese language proficiency in distinguishing tone 2 and tone 3. The tone or sound stimulus used in this study are fluctuating tones (</strong><strong>降升调</strong><strong>) which is the basic form of the second and third tones by varying the frequency and time of the curve point. The research method used is the experimental method, a research instrument based on a test. The results showed that changes in the high frequency and time of curve point in fluctuating sound stimulus had a significant effect. Respondents were more sensitive to changes in sound stimuli with the independent variable time of the curve point compared to the high frequency. The type of respondent's perception of the sound stimulus with the time-independent variable at the curve point is categorized as categorical perception. Meanwhile, the respondent's perception of the sound stimulus with the high-frequency independent variable at the curve point is classified as the continuous perception</strong></p><p><strong>Keywords –</strong><em> </em><em>C</em><em>ategorical perception, </em><em>C</em><em>ontinuous perception,</em><em> </em><em>Chinese</em><em> phonetic, </em><em>Chinese</em><em> tone</em><strong> </strong></p>

Switching perception of musical meters by listening to different acoustic cues of biphasic sound stimulus

Meter is one of the core features of music perception. It is the cognitive grouping of regular sound sequences, typically for every 2, 3, or 4 beats. Previous studies have suggested that one can not only passively perceive the meter from acoustic cues such as loudness, pitch, and duration of sound elements, but also actively perceive it by paying attention to isochronous sound events without any acoustic cues. Studying the interaction of top-down and bottom-up processing in meter perception leads to understanding the cognitive system’s ability to perceive the entire structure of music. The present study aimed to demonstrate that meter perception requires the top-down process (which maintains and switches attention between cues) as well as the bottom-up process for discriminating acoustic cues. We created a “biphasic” sound stimulus, which consists of successive tone sequences designed to provide cues for both the triple and quadruple meters in different sound attributes, frequency, and duration. Participants were asked to focus on either frequency or duration of the stimulus, and to answer how they perceived meters on a five-point scale (ranged from “strongly triple” to “strongly quadruple”). As a result, we found that participants perceived different meters by switching their attention to specific cues. This result adds evidence to the idea that meter perception involves the interaction between top-down and bottom-up processes.

Cues for Directional Hearing in the Fly Ormia ochracea

Insects are often small relative to the wavelengths of sounds they need to localize, which presents a fundamental biophysical problem. Understanding novel solutions to this limitation can provide insights for biomimetic technologies. Such an approach has been successful using the fly Ormia ochracea (Diptera: Tachinidae) as a model. O. ochracea is a parasitoid species whose larvae develop as internal parasites within crickets (Gryllidae). In nature, female flies find singing male crickets by phonotaxis, despite severe constraints on directional hearing due to their small size. A physical coupling between the two tympanal membranes allows the flies to obtain information about sound source direction with high accuracy because it generates interaural time-differences (ITD) and interaural level differences (ILD) in tympanal vibrations that are exaggerated relative to the small arrival-time difference at the two ears, that is the only cue available in the sound stimulus. In this study, I demonstrate that pure time-differences in the neural responses to sound stimuli are sufficient for auditory directionality in O. ochracea.

Acoustotactic response of mosquitoes in untethered flight to incidental sound

Mosquitoes are vectors for some of the most devastating diseases on the planet. Given the centrality of acoustic sensing in the precopulatory behavior of these vectors, the use of an exogenous acoustic stimulus offers the potential of interfering with the courtship behavior of these insects. Previous research on the acoustotactic response of mosquitoes has been conducted on tethered preparations using low-intensity sound stimuli. To quantify differences in acoustotactic responses between mosquitos of distinct sex and species, we examined the effects of incidental sound stimuli on the flight behavior of free-flying male vs. female Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. The key variables were sound frequency (100–1000 Hz) and intensity (67–103 dB, measured at 12.5 cm from the source), and the acoustotactic response was measured in terms of the relative increase in flight speed in response to the stimulus. The data show, for the first time, significant sex- and species-specific differences in acoustotactic responses. A. aegypti exhibited a greater response to sound stimulus compared to An. gambiae, and the response also extended over a larger range of frequencies. Furthermore, the males of both species displayed a greater acoustotactic response than females, with An. gambiae females exhibiting minimal response to sound.

EMG-Free Monitorization of the Acoustic Startle Reflex with a Mobile Phone: Implications of Sound Parameters with Posture Related Responses

(1) Background: Acute acoustic (sound) stimulus prompts a state of defensive motivation in which unconscious muscle responses are markedly enhanced in humans. The orbicularis oculi (OO) of the eye is an easily accessed muscle common for acoustic startle reaction/response/reflex (ASR) investigations and is the muscle of interest in this study. Although the ASR can provide insights about numerous clinical conditions, existing methodologies (Electromyogram, EMG) limit the usability of the method in real clinical conditions. (2) Objective: With EMG-free muscle recording in mind, our primary aim was to identify and investigate potential correlations in the responses of individual and cooperative OO muscles to various acoustic stimuli using a mobile and wire-free system. Our secondary aim was to investigate potential altered responses to high and also relatively low intensity acoustics at different frequencies in both sitting and standing positions through the use of biaural sound induction and video diagnostic techniques and software. (3) Methods: This study used a mobile-phone acoustic startle response monitoring system application to collect blink amplitude and velocity data on healthy males, aged 18–28 community cohorts during (n = 30) in both sitting and standing postures. The iPhone X application delivers specific sound parameters and detects blinking responses to acoustic stimulus (in millisecond resolution) to study the responses of the blinking reflex to acoustic sounds in standing and sitting positions by using multiple acoustic test sets of different frequencies and amplitudes introduced as acute sound stimuli (<0.5 s). The single acoustic battery of 15 pure-square wave sounds consisted of frequencies and amplitudes between 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz scales using 65, 90, and 105 dB (e.g., 3000 Hz_90 dB). (4) Results: Results show that there was a synchronization of amplitude and velocity between both eyes to all acoustic startles. Significant differences (p = 0.01) in blinking reaction time between sitting vs. standing at the high intensity (105 dB) 500 Hz acoustic test set was discovered. Interestingly, a highly significant difference (p < 0.001) in response times between test sets 500 Hz_105 dB and 4000 Hz_105 dB was identified. (5) Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first mobile phone-based acoustic battery used to detect and report significant ASR responses to specific frequencies and amplitudes of sound stimulus with corresponding sitting and standing conditions. The results from this experiment indicate the potential significance of using the specific frequency, amplitude, and postural conditions (as never before identified) which can open new horizons for ASR to be used for diagnosis and monitoring in numerous clinical and remote or isolated conditions.

Dhikrullah Vibration as Stimulus of Social Behavior Change

Dhikrullah is a strong single sound stimulus not yet applied as a stimulus to invite alpha wave in the brain as a center of human consciousness. Dhikrullah has been practiced among Muslims for more than a thousand years, but research on the function of dhikrullah as a stimulus to the brain waves as the center of human consciousness has not yet been completed. Chapter 2 of al-Anfal verse 2 and chapter ar-Rad verse 28. This study is an academic response to the foundation of discovering science for social change through dhikrullah. Scientific attention to behavior change through vibration stimuli is still very few. The combined data in this study consisted of qualitative data from 4 respondents in order to find the Dhikrullah model and quantitative data from 10 subjects to obtain dhikrullah stimulus samples on subject brain waves through Electro Encephalo Graf (EEG). The results obtained by EEG encourage dhikrullah as vibrations to be carried out as a stimulus to brain waves. Dhikrullah through the audiotory nerve is able to stimulate the brain to present alpha waves on the subject while running the dhikrullah. All subjects stated the difficulty of feeling calm during and after dhikrullah as a basis for behavior change. This study is new because it uses EEG to prove that dhikrullah vibration can be a stimulus for behavior change. Behavioral reviewers, especially practitioners can use dhikrullah as a stimulus to help humans who want to get change easily and cheaply.

Mental training in psychological training of shooters

The goal was to study the psycho-emotional sphere and substantiate the methodology of mental training for shooters. Material and methods: the study involved 12 rifle and pistol shooters of the Kherson Higher School of Physical Education. Among them are athletes with qualifications of the second, first categories, candidates for Master of Sports and Master of Sports of Ukraine. The study continued during 2018-2019. In the course of the research, the method of mental training of shooters was introduced. The results proved that the means of mental training had a positive effect on the state of the nervous system of shooters. Sensory motor responses were superior in less experienced athletes. So, for shooters of the CCM level and below, the results are better than those of the masters of sports: 1) according to the tapping test for 0.75 ms, 2) according to the reaction to a light stimulus for 12.5 ms, c) according to the reaction to a sound stimulus to 55 5 ms. The degree of training according to the Schulte table was high among all shooters, but slightly higher among the masters of sports (by 0.05). A rather high indicator of emotional excitability was found in shooters of masters of sports. Among the representatives of this group were persons with different types of temperament. Basically, the sanguine type prevailed, based on a strong, balanced, mobile type of the nervous system. For the representatives of the second group, which included candidates for masters of sports and first-class athletes, this indicator was at an average level. In our opinion, this is due to the fact that the representatives of this group had persons with a predominantly phlegmatic type of temperament. Conclusions: mental training had a positive effect on the level of mental processes and emotional sphere of shooters. On the basis of the data obtained on the mental sphere of shooters, it was established that these indicators were at high and sufficient levels.

The system using mobile technologies to test reaction time

Reaction time to a light or sound stimulus is an important element of life. Constructing and testing a measuring device for collecting the response time stimulus focused on two study groups. The results which were obtained showed that people who specialize in sports have 0.15 seconds, better time than people who do not professionally deal with sport. Be tested for both groups with additional verification (stopwatch) confirmed the measuring apparatus along with the application.