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Music and the brain: How does AIT's sound screening technology cause controversy?
Auditory Integration Training (AIT) is a therapeutic procedure pioneered by Guy Bérard in France. Bellard claims that AIT is effective in treating clinical depression and suicidal tendencies, and also claims that it is extremely effective for people with dyslexia and autism, but in fact, there is little empirical evidence to support these claims. AIT typically involves twenty half-hour sessions over ten days, with trainees listening to specially filtered and modulated music. AIT has been used to treat autism since the early 1990s and has been increasingly adopted as a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and a variety of other disorders.
AIT has not met scientific standards to prove its effectiveness as a treatment for any condition.
AIT should be considered an experimental procedure, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other professional organizations. The New York State Department of Public Health also recommends that AIT should not be used to treat young children with autism. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the import of the original equipment Audiokinetron used for AIT into the United States due to lack of evidence of medical effectiveness.
Training Program
AIT aims to improve sensory problems such as distorted hearing and oversensitivity to sound. Oversensitivity is thought to cause discomfort and be confusing for people with learning disabilities, including those with autism. These sensitivities are thought to interfere with a child's ability to concentrate, understand, and learn. A typical AIT training regimen involves each trainee attending two 30-minute sessions per day, separated by at least three hours. During this time, the trainees listened to specially filtered music with a wide frequency range through headphones. Each trainee's music program is modified according to their needs, and certain audio frequencies are filtered through electronic devices to switch between low and high notes at random intervals.
The volume of the AIT was set as high as possible without causing discomfort. If the listener has a particular sensitivity to certain frequencies, these frequencies may also be additionally filtered.
The Audiokinetron device originally used to perform this exercise has been banned for import by the FDA. While no AIT device has received FDA approval as a medical device, devices focused on educational assistance are not subject to such regulation. A number of non-approved devices are currently used for AIT, one of which is the Digital Auditory Aerobics (DAA) system, which replaces the Audiokinetron and contains twenty half-hour CDs that output as the audio source for the banned device, thus circumventing The use of original equipment is prohibited. Most professionals who perform AIT include speech therapists, audiologists, and occupational therapists, as well as psychologists, physicians, social workers, and teachers.
Lack of evidence and insufficient effect
A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of AIT showed insufficient evidence to support its use. Several professional organizations have stated that AIT should be considered experimental, including the American Academy of Audiology, the American Speech-Language-Hearing-Speech Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Association for Educational Audiology. After reviewing the available research, the New York State Department of Public Health concluded that the effectiveness of AIT has not been proven and therefore recommended that it should not be used in young children with autism.
Historical BackgroundBérard's book Audition Égale Comportement is the first book on AIT. Annabel Stehli's The Sound of a Miracle is a personal story about the author's daughter, an autistic girl who received AIT treatment. The book provides AIT with great exposure in the English-speaking world. By 1994, more than 10,000 American children and adults had been treated with AIT at a cost of approximately $1,000 to $1,300 per person, making AIT a multimillion-dollar industry.
Although AIT has achieved some market success, doubts about its efficacy have arisen.
Alfred Tomatis, a French otolaryngologist, studied hearing loss and discovered the connection between hearing and speech, which became the basis of his auditory stimulation method. His research showed that sound contains audio frequencies that the ear can hear, and when it is discovered that the ear is defective but can hear correctly, the sound improves instantly and unconsciously. He believed that the brain could retrain itself by creating neutral pathways to compensate for an individual's dysfunctional brain structures or pathways. Although there have been promising small trials throughout history, later more controlled studies have failed to support the concept of AIT, and many early studies had methodological flaws when assessing its potential effects, such as a lack of statistical power. , blind test or control group. Therefore, the use of AIT today is not widely supported and remains mainly in the research stage.
In today's world where hearing technology is developing rapidly, controversy over AIT still exists. So, how should we find a balance between scientific evidence and clinical practice?
