Acoustic CR® Neuromodulation: Do It Yourself Guide

No kidding. Bad enough I've been plagued for decades by "song stuck in head syndrome."

It's hard for me to remember to keep the neuromodulation to one hour with your musical audio because it truly fades out of my awareness when I'm working at the computer. Maybe it's a coincidence, but the last two nights, after alternating notched white rain audio and your ACRN, I only awoke once each night. It's usually 2 or 3 times. Also, for the first time in I can't remember how long, I am experiencing two mild days in a row. Usually after a mild day, the next day is up in the 8/10 range.

Hopefully it's not a fluke. Even if it changes tomorrow and reverts to its usual teeth-gnashing level, I'll continue for the entire three months. Can't thank you enough for this incredibly pleasing audio.

 

After reading through this thread I thought ACRN was ridiculous and that those saying it worked were saying that only because they tricked themselves into believing it. I've had a high-pitched tone and a hissing sound for many years and wasn't expecting a bunch of tones to change anything. Regardless, I went to generalfuzz.net and listened for about an hour. When done I could still hear the hiss but could not hear my T tone. The last time I didn't hear that tone was about 5 years ago. I couldn't believe it. It did start returning slowly after about 20 minutes, but those 20 minutes were well worth an hour of beeps.

Thank you.

 

@smel - I have played around with ACRN (courtesy of generalfuzz) in the past and experienced temporary benefits very similar to what you describe - reduction or elimination of the main T tone so that all you have left is a much more tolerable hiss. Much like yourself, I found that an hour of beeps would buy me around 20 minutes of reduced T.

It is generally believed that these short term effects can be attributed to residual inhibition (RI). I am not capable of providing a scientific definition of RI but I understand it to be the process by which receptors in the brain which are normally dormant in people with hearing loss become stimulated by certain types of sound with the effect that these under-stimulated receptors temporarily cease firing off the neurons which we perceive as T. Since RI only produces a short term effect, the big question is whether ACRN can produce permanent or long term reduction in T. AFAIK, the jury is still out on that one.

 

@PhilB Yep, I don't expect any long-term benefits. Just having 20 minutes of no high-pitched tone was wonderful. On a side note I did wake up without hearing my high-pitched T. That lasted probably close to half an hour. I can't remember the last time that happened, but it was definitely longer than 5 years ago. I had been listening to an mp3 file I made after recording from General Fuzz's site prior to going to bed. Whether that had anything to do with the absence of the tone in the morning I'll never know, but it was an incredible experience while it lasted. Just knowing there's an option for toning down the volume, even temporarily, is a huge stress reliever.

I've had my hearing checked before after seeing an ENT for T, and they said my hearing was "fine" or something to that effect. There's definitely some hearing loss at higher frequencies such as 14kHz and over, but I don't seem to have any hearing problems near or at the frequency of my T.

I'm going to alternate between ACRN and whitenoise notching for the next several months. By alternating I mean doing both each day at separate hours. Even if the results continue to be temporary, it's far better than nothing.

 

I used to do the exact same thing. There was a time when I would lie in bed listening to generalfuzz ACRN tones on an mp3 player to quieten the T before going to sleep. Since then, I have habituated to the point where T no longer prevents me from sleeping. It still bothers me sometimes during the day but no longer seems to trouble me when I go to bed at night. Anyway, I am glad you are getting some relief from ACRN.

 

If acrn works for us temporary (for me it does), is it telling us anything about the architecture of our t? or is it more or less like a black box and we just don't know why it works?

 

@AlexSongitus
The webpage you posted for the tone generator seems to be helping to turn the tone tinnitus that i have left off and make it dissapear for at least a few minutes. Do you by any chance now the protocol and how to use it. Do you listen to it all day or only for a few minutes? and for how many days or months?

 

Well, I've read all 20 pages and have a few thoughts.

1. Thank you, thank you for putting out this free Neuromodulator!
2. Most of the questions people ask have already been answered multiple times somewhere within these 20 pages.
3. I've had this T for 25 years now, so I am not going to hold my breath that anything will help it. Call me cynical. But I think it's gotten louder over the past year, so I'm willing to try. My frequenc(ies) appear to be somewhere around 11000. Been listening to generalfuzz for the 30 minutes or so it took me to read this whole thread - no change yet. But you bet I will start listening the required 4-6 hours per day starting tomorrow. I will report back at some point.

 

I just wanted to say to whoever general fuzz is .... you are awesome. I've listened to this at night for an hour or so when I mess around on the computer (like now) and I don't feel like putting my head through a wall the next day. That's saying a LOT for me. Whatever this is doing, I am getting some relief for at least 12-20 hours. Hard to tell if I need to do it in the morning too, some mornings I have, others I haven't. Will be getting some more details, but this is the first thing to give me relief since my T started. Maskers just do that - mask, as soon as i shut the masking sound off ..... tea kettle blasting in my skull....if I mask too long, it's even louder. ACRN has not once made my T worse, only better - just for how long and how long I need to listen and how closely matched the frequency needs to be are the questions- for me anyway. This only works on my macbook - wish there was an iphone or android app I appreciate you making this and my sanity thanks you.

 

Apologies if I missed where it said this, but: How long are you supposed to listen to this for a day? Do you listen to it before bed, while trying to sleep, or in the morning, etc?

 

I'm using the General Fuzz website. My tinnitus frequency is 15000hz so it is really high, after using it for awhile my left ear hurt. Could be unrelated or could I be causing hearing damage? Can high frequencies cause hearing damage even at low decibels around 70db? It's really good at masking my tinnitus, better then anything else and I want to keep using it, but I'm afraid I could make things worse with hearing damage. Please advise.

 

The study that was done in Germany had it's patients listen to it 4-6 hours per day for 12 weeks.

 

What's your Tinnitus frequency?

 

Someone said in another thread this treatment doesn't work if your tinnitus is a higher frequency than 10000hz? is this true?

 

@sonicboom2000 the research was only done with people that have a t up to 10khz. to my knowledge it didn't make a statement as to whether it works above 10khz or not.

This is a publication made by a team of researchers, including some that are not affiliated with the ANM company:

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2015/569052/

 

So if I do 15000hz the highest beep is 20900 and I can't hear about 18000 for some reason. Is this normal hearing for a 31 year old? I did the test over finding the frequency and now I think it maybe 7400hz, about half of what I original thought, does this make sense? 7400 would work out better since I can hear all the beeps. Any thoughts?

 

Btw the beeps are much more tolerable to listen to at 7400. Omg those high frequency beeps were killing me.

 

Hi,

Pure tones (like the generator you're using) can cause a lot of confusion in people. Octave matching is a struggle, which is why you feel happy at half the frequency - an octave is a doubling of the frequency. It is likely that the lower tone is correct, just as it is that the higher tone is correct. You probably need a more sophisticated pitch matcher but there isn't a commercially available one that i know of.

The highest any human can hear is 20 kHz (20,000 Hz) so you are perfectly normal, high frequency hearing also deteriorates with age. For example I top out at 13-14 kHz and I'm 41.

Bear in mind that what you're doing on the General Fuzz site isn't a medical intervention. You could think of it as an audio tool based on the theory of neuromodulation. If it works, awesome, if it doesn't then there are other things to try. Not everyone responds to audio the same way.

The sound generator is only valid when you can hear the 4 tones being played. If you can't hear them then you aren't getting equal sound above and below your tinnitus frequency.

 

FYI my T is 8,000 - 8500. The ACRN works, but I'm not sure if it's making any long term changes. temporary relief that lasts after I hit stop. that's what's so meaningful to me. frigin maskers - as soon as I stop - beeeeeeeeeeeep. But this acrn thing, takes the tone out for 20 mins to an hour or so. I'm hoping if I do this a few hours a day everyday, my T will get lower, but for now it's good days and bad days. I reeeeeally would love this in an mp3, I know there were instructions, but I couldn't quite get it to work. I have to commute 12 hours a week and i'm in a phd program AND working .... I don't even want to talk about how effing terrible this is for me right now. Could I PLEASE get an mp3 for 8,000 ? If I play tune it to 8,000 and I'm really 8,500 is that bad? Is it better to find the tone that's too high or find the tone that's too low? I went to an audiologists and she says I'm at 8,000, but seems a bit higher, but not near 9,000 that's for sure.

 

Hi Dave,
i have read a lot about neuromodulation but people and italians doc. that study Tinnitus problem tell me that could work only on pure tone Tinnitus like the Phase Out system. For example i have T in my left hear. My audiogram is: 6000hz 15db 7000hz 40db 8000hz 35db (and after i don't know but go up in better until 12000hz, i test it on youtube) and my T is an Hissing sound (shshshshshs), with a sort of buzzing low noise (vrrrrrvrrrrvrrrr) into and a general background noise (fffffffsfsfsfsfsf) that sometimes i can hear into my head and not in my left hear. So i can mask it but i don't know if i can "erase" it taking the right freq of my Tinnitus.
I hope that you could understand my poor english.

 

here you go.. I recorded it from the webpage.

I don't know when the pattern repeats, the recording is appr 2 minutes long. let me know if you need different length. hope it helps.

 

Is it counterproductive to listen to something else, like a podcast, while listening to the ACRN tones?

 

Hi, I am new to this forum, I have had tinnitus since childhood I am now 56. It has been and is still horrible. I would like to try your method, could you tell me what type of computer and other items I need?
Thanks!

 

Hi Wanda, can you tell us what is your tinnitus frequency? Do you know it?

 

A guy named Lukeus_Maximus, on reddit, made a website for the treatment of tinnitus(ACRN), that is based on the research:

https://www.researchgate.net/profil...modulation/links/5440371e0cf21227a11ba78d.pdf

I'm not sure if it's already posted, the website is:

https://lukeusmaximus.github.io/acrn-tinnitus-treatment/

And to go directly to the 'treatment':

https://lukeusmaximus.github.io/acrn-tinnitus-treatment/identify-and-treat.html

 

Hi folks

it's work for wheezing T? (My T is like a TV Noise), if I cover my ears, I hear a 8000hz or 9000hz (in my whole head), ONLY if I cover my full ears.

However day to day I listen a Tv noise (Radio off air), It never bothered me, but in the last days is a little higher than normal.

Thanks so much

Have nice day

 

I'm going through a spike and was playing around with the Neuromodulator today. When I play a tone for maybe 3 seconds and then stop it, I get a faint fleeting T of that same tone, that slowly fades away. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

I do get that sometimes. Usually when it's a tone that I find annoying, it will either linger beyond the tone finishing or my tinnitus will reproduce it afterwards in a fleeting way for a time. When I did the ACRN trial if I listened to the tones for too long I would find they got stuck in my head for a little afterwards.

 

Hi Philip83

I think that is normal, it's happen with me too (sometimes)

 

@Eduardo Neves , @Steve that's interesting, thanks for your replies. I had this low tone last time two years ago when I got my now permanent spike.. Although the low tone did dissapear then, so I'm crossing my fingers it will this time as well..