The Listening Project at the ADD Centre and Biofeedback Institute of Toronto

Summary

Purpose: A research project will be conducted at the ADD ("Attention Deficit Disorder") Centre and Biofeedback Institute of Toronto to evaluate the feasibility of the Listening Project Protocol (LPP) intervention in individuals with difficulties with autonomic and/or behavioral regulation. The LPP is designed as a "neural exercise" to reduce auditory hypersensitivities, to improve auditory processing of speech, and to improve behavioral state regulation. These improvements should translate into increase feelings of safety and calmness, thereby promoting improvement in social behavior.

Participants: 30 participants, males and females between ages 7-55 years, will be recruited for the study. Participants will be patients at the ADD Centre and Biofeedback Institute of Toronto.

Procedures: Participants will be divided into 1 of 2 groups (1:1 ratio). Both groups will have a pre-intervention assessment #2, intervention, 1 week post intervention assessment and 1 month post intervention assessment. Group 2 will have an additional pre-intervention assessment session #1 (1 week previous to pre-intervention assessment #2) to assess the stability of the measures prior to starting the intervention. Pre-, post-, and 1 month followup assessment will include parent and/or self-report questionnaires, and measures of the individual's auditory processing ("SCAN"), affect recognition ("DARE" Dynamic Affect Recognition Evaluation), heart rate, prosody, "RSA" respiratory sinus arrhythmia (derived from non-invasive ECG recording), and middle ear transfer function ("MESAS" - Middle Ear Sound Absorption System).

Conditions

• Auditory Perceptual Disorders
• Stress Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Listening Project Protocol

The filtered-music intervention will consist of listening to computer-altered acoustic stimulation, designed to modulate the frequency band of vocal music passed to the participant. The frequency characteristics of the acoustic stimulation are selected to emphasize the relative importance of specific frequencies in conveying the information embedded in human speech. Modulation of the acoustic energy within the frequencies of human voice, similar to an exaggerated vocal prosody, are hypothesized to recruit and modulate the neural regulation of the middle ear muscles and to functionally reduce sound hypersensitivities and improve auditory processing.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• ADD Centre© and Biofeedback Institute of Toronto©

  collaborator OTHER

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Keri J Heilman, PhD · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

7 Years

Max Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-09-01

Primary Completion

2023-11-17

Completion

2023-11-17

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations