Acoustic CR® Neuromodulation: Do It Yourself Guide

I am new to this forum today will be trying this approach. In fact, it's what brought me to the forum in the first place. I found it very difficult to match my T using the frequency slider on the general fuzz site. As an alternative, I walked over to the piano in a very quiet room. Slowly, I worked my way up the keyboard. This method proved useful as I determined that my T is a high E flat. There are only 88 keys and I knew it would not be any of the low notes! Armed with this knowledge, I searched google for the frequency of my note. High E Flat is 4978.

Thereafter, I simply typed the number into the 'Frequency' box, rather than using the slider.

Using headphones, I played the ACRN tones for about 30 minutes. I am hopeful, but not optimistic.

It did give me headache almost immediately and seems to have moved my T backwards within my head, if that's possible.

Thanks

Jim

 

Has anyone seen this online tone tester. No good for me as my T is too low frequency but looks useful.
http://www.audionotch.com/app/tune/

 

Has anyone had a difference in their T since they started this?

 

Not really but it does stop pretty good it while it's on

 

Just found this article. Pinging all the sound experts here for opinion and potential samples.

Amplitude Modulated S-Tones Can Be Superior to Noise for Tinnitus Reduction - http://aja.pubs.asha.org/Article.aspx?articleid=1889419

 

Interesting. S-tones are part of the soundcure blurb from what I remember but didn't see any mention of it in the abstract.

We could easily replicate this, just need to know how much they modulated the amplitude and with what waveform.

 

I wonder would they tell if we ask nicely?...

 

Do you have any examples or equations for S-Tones? I am pretty good with MatLAB, as long I have them I could maybe come up with something and make a nifty program.

 

I don't unfortunately, if we could find out the speed and waveform we would be able to do it pretty simply. Could always try a few variations and see what happened.

 

Hi, I'd like to report some (non existent) results because I bet that some people like to know if this works.

I've been listening to ACRN for over a month now by using generallfuzzes website. Can't really tell any difference even tho my tinnitus is still in somewhat acute stage (It started in May 4th this year). I listened about 5 hours a day first 1,5 weeks and after that average of 1-3 hours per day. My T frequency is about 14300Hz which is pretty high. I modified the generalfuzzes code so that the highest frequency is a bit lower - around 16600Hz that I can actually hear it in low or moderate sound levels (by default it goes up to 20000Hz which I can't hear). I may not be suitable candidate but I gave it a shot.

The good thing is that I've habituated pretty well and I can almost fall asleep normally with a radio talk show playing in the background.

 

I heard if you divide your Tinnitus frequency in half and play the sounds, I hear that works.

 

Hello everyone, i just discovered this thread and read all the way through it. I Am going to give this a try but I have a few problems.

@Zechariah , how did you modify the code to get other frequencies, and how do you run the code afterwards?
My T frequency is around 14000-16000 Hz, which is also my hearing limit. I can not hear the two frequencies above.

So i was thinking of just taking 4 frequencies below 16000 Hz, somewhat evenly space between f/2 and f, e.g. 8-9,5-11-12,5 kHz.

@Richard Warren
Is your tool for tone generation available?

 

Hi, it's pretty easy. Just get the source code from github (I think that the link is somewhere in this thread). Copy it to somewhere on your computer, open up ACRN.js from js folder with any text editor (I suggest that you get notepad++ that the code is easier to read) and search for variable named freqChoices, when you see it you should see the frequency formula. The line with the values you need to edit looks something like this:
freqChoices = [Math.floor(currentFreq * 0.773 - 44.5), Math.floor(currentFreq * 0.903 - 21.5),
Math.floor(currentFreq * 1.09 + 52), Math.floor(currentFreq * 1.395 + 26.5)];

When you are done, just open up index.html from the folder in which you saved the source files. index.html should open up into your browser by default.

But you should get atleast one tone above your tinnitus tone to have even a slight chance to get it work on your tinnitus.

 

BTW - you can manually set the frequencies in the web-app. Just click on each frequency - you can adjust the frequency and volume of each tone.

 

Ok now i see it, thanks.

 

Have been using Generalfuzz's javascript program for two days after acquiring a pair of skullcandy titan earbuds. At first there seemed to be no reduction. This evening the tinnitus dropped to a low hiss. Hard to match the pitch. I seem to have a steep drop in sensitivity at 9.8 KHz. There is a peak around 5.7 KHz. Sometimes a tone appears there, but there is mostly a hiss, now attenuated. Last week it was so loud it felt as though half of my face was missing--all sensory activity on the right side appeared to be "consumed" with the tinnitus (overwhelmingly on the right side).

 

Thanks for the tip. It seems I took the harder route...

 

One thing to bear in mind regarding the peaks and dips is that your earbuds/headphones may not have a flat frequency response. Testing myself a year or so ago I thought I had a serious hearing loss at 4khz. Turned out to be the headphones I was using, and when I used a different pair I could hear 4khz fine.

Congrats on what seems to be encouraging results so far. I hope the improvement continues.

 

This is consistent with different earphones. Today I woke up with louder pulsing hissing in my right ear--somewhat irritating. I find it hard to localize the central pitch. I've been commuting with earplugs in the perhaps vain hope that my condition won't get worse. It was torture last week.

 

I don't want to give the impression that I really know the answer, but it might be worth doing a little research around whether earplugs are a good idea. (Obviously they are if the noise level is excessive.) I don't know the background to your tinnitus - if it is recent acoustic trauma that caused it then I think there is some evidence that shutting yourself away from normal sound might perhaps be a bad idea. Also if it is recently caused the AM101 trials might be worth looking into.

Very sorry to hear it is so rough at the moment. Don't lose hope, and it sounds like maybe you got some benefit from the ACRN. The idea is to use it 4-6 hours a day for several weeks, retuning periodically. You might find it easier to locate your frequency if someone else can test you (play the tones while you sit with your eyes closed and say higher or lower). The best of luck to you.

 

I have had tinnitus for so many years I have forgotten what it was like to live without it. I was unaware that earplugs could exacerbate recent hearing loss. The sounds of the subway in Manhattan are loud enough, I assure you.

What is new about my hearing is that recently the condition has become so difficult to ignore that I was driven to these forums. (I almost wrote, "to the bowels of the Internet.") I have to say that after using ACRN since the weekend, my tinnitus is no longer a loud pulsing hiss, at least this afternoon -- more like crickets at this point, although I suspect it can come back. The respite, however fleeting, is inducement to continue. I understand that the treatment requires weeks and that it may be too soon to tell--although if it sounds like diminished tinnitus, it is. The pitch seems to have dropped also. I should have my hearing checked in any case. [The expense of medical treatment in the US and the uncertainties surrounding my new health insurance policy (at least in my case, as I am not a Congressman), make inexpensive DIY therapy attractive and satisfying, incidentally.]

 

@generalfuzz
How do you calculate the frequencies?
It's not the f/2 and 2*f with equal distance mid-points (on log10-scale) that was initially mentioned in this thread?

 

F Lengyel, your use of earplugs will be fine then. I just tried to find a reference for my comment, but came up blank and do not have much time.

Your pitch decreasing is a sign that the ACRN may be working. Try to stay positive if you can - you are taking affirmative action.

 

Why do you think so?

 

I think because the principle it works on is that the audio perception in your brain needs to be corrected. The correction is based on these tones playing either side of your tinnitus to reset your perception, so playing just the tones below may not have the desired effect. It's possibly worth a shot though as it can't hurt you.

Maybe a silly question, but are you 100% sure that your tinnitus is as high as you think? It may be an octave below (half the number of Hz), sometimes it's difficult to distinguish at higher frequencies. Incidentally, it won't work playing the tones an octave below unless it is your matched pitch, this was the placebo control method from the original tests.

 

I missed a full day (only about an hour or so) and regressed! Spent a few hours today with the ACRN program (it should be called ACORN) and only now the hissing is diminished...

 

This morning I awoke with the hissing significantly diminished. The effect is delayed after exposure to ACRN. Remarkable: I had forgotten what relative quiet is like. The volume level seems to depend on my position--the tinnitus is louder when I am lying down and softer when I am standing.

 

I would really love to try to do this.
I am not technically very good.....can anyone create it for me and send it to me as a link if I were to try and identify the tone I am hearing. To describe it is: when a kettle is on the gas stove for boiling the hot water, just before the water is boiling, this is the exact sound and the only sound that drowns the sound in my head. It is driving me insane, I am alone in rural france and can get no techno help whatsoever here regarding this. Therefore. please if anyone can do it for me and send it to me as a link......sorry to ask but I really want to try it as it sounds like it has helped people and my T is so new that I would like to try and retrain brain before it is too late.....thank you very much for reading and hopefully you can help me

 

Try generalfuzz's link in a chrome or firefox browser: http://generalfuzz.net/acrn
Experiment with this. It is hit or miss to generate tones for others without knowing the exact pitch.

 

I think so, measured by an audiologist at 14000 Hz.
But everything from 13000 to 16000 is hard to identify and easy to confuse. Might be a mix.

But the spread of the frequencies generated by the acrn page seems quite small to me. Curious at how it's calculated.

So for the placebo control method, they already knew for sure that treatment one octave below doesn't work.