How AIT Works
How does Auditory Integration Training work? Why do these changes come about?
It's about…
- Listening sessions that help to normalize hearing and sharpen listening skills…
- AIT decreasing anxiety and increasing attention to the details of life…
- Listening sessions that use the auditory neural routing to improve mid-brain function…
How long does AIT take?
- Berard-style AIT consists of 10 days of two 30-minute listening sessions per day
- The twenty 30-minute sessions provide lots of practice with novel & unpredictable auditory experiences
- The novelty of the listening gives the neural circuitry a physical synaptic workout
How does the issue of novelty make these improvements?
In order to prepare us for interpreting language, the brain sets us up for what it expects us to hear. When the brain is presented with new material, it increases attention to the matter of conducting information across the neural brain landscape.
This encourages the formation of new synaptic routing…
How are the sounds novel?
The AIT sessions give the listener novel stimuli in the form of moving music…
- The music actually moves around acoustically…
- The music alternates unexpectedly from ear to ear, from loud to soft, pitches are emphasized at unexpected times…
- Movement excites & interests the brain
- The brain learns through movement
New routes in the brain
Most auditory messages the brain receives initiate a complex and intense synaptic routing scenario. The sound stimulus travels through the
- brainstem
- medulla
- superior olivary
- superior colliculus
- thalamus…
all these structures must connect to the auditory cortex
This analysis process continues…
The left & right sides of the brain work together to discriminate complex sound elements, such as speech (all of speech’s miniscule sound components & qualities).
The left side of the brain processes fast speech sounds in the Broca’s area.
Broca’s area is also the controller of the motor cortex.
A major theme of brain action is interconnectedness .
The brain is all about feedback loops and interconnected structures.
The greater the efficiency of the brain’s ability to allow structures to communicate back and forth with other, the quicker the processing and the greater the apparent cognitive prowess – in terms of observed behaviors.
But, the most important ingredient is the attentional state for the processing of sensory input.
The brain equates attention with learning .
Fast processing of input …
Good sensory integration is founded upon speedy processing of sensory input. Then the world makes sense & our behaviors match expectations of observers.
Otherwise , the world is full of uncertain, poorly analyzed data, distortion and always – surprises .
It's not a fun place to be.
The music sounds strange …
The sounds (the music) are randomized (this is why the music is said to “move”) & filters are used to block certain frequencies (as determined by hearing profile checks with Otoacoustic testing equipment).
We block out prominent peaks in the hearing response