| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 25, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 15, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1720698 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Nancy Kamei
TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | July 15, 2017 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $225,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $225,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
6341 N Clark st Chicago IL US 60660-1216 (312)434-9594 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
5757 N Sheridan Rd Apt 17B Chicago IL US 60660-8710 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | STTR Phase I |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project lies in treating clinical and subclinical inattention within a few minutes, by simply listening to algorithmically-generated music. Failures of attention have dramatic clinical and non-clinical ramifications. In the non-clinical side, nearly 90% of people attest to wasting time in the workplace, and this reduced efficiency has an estimated $1 T economic impact in the US alone. At the clinical level, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the best-characterized attentional deficit, affects over 8M children in the US, with the leading solution being a near-epidemic growth of prescriptions stimulants. However, over 4 M American adults do not meet all the criteria to be diagnosed with ADHD (and therefore cannot be prescribed medication), and have no convenient alternatives for treatment. Brain.fm is a non-invasive auditory stimulation platform designed to treat inattention. It generates music designed specifically to stimulate attentional networks in our brain by exploiting the latest neuroscience concepts of how neurons entrain to stimulus rhythms. Our objective is for Brain.fm to become a validated, non-invasive therapeutic tool for Attention to help everyone who suffers from mind wandering, regardless of whether they meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD.
The proposed project is aimed at experimentally demonstrating generalizable changes in attention through auditory stimulation. For decades, neuroscientists have observed wave-like activity in the brain and related them to attentional states. The ability to change attentional states, via noninvasive brain stimulation, would be greatly desirable for everyday functioning as well as crucial for understanding how brain waves relate to behavior. The proposed project tests a novel auditory neuroscience-informed platform solution for delivering noninvasive brain stimulation through music. In addition to establishing a revolutionary method to enhance attention noninvasively by tuning brain waves through comprehensive behavioral and fMRI studies, we test the efficacy of this method to treat inattention, especially in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Key outcomes of this project are: 1) non clinical (but Institutional Review Board-approved) studies that determine how this auditory therapy impacts attention on an adult ADHD prone population, 2) a deeper understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms of attention and neuronal entrainment, and 3)optimization of our product by testing different versions of our algorithmically generated music on our existing customer base. Results are expected to show how purpose-built acoustic stimulation can support the neuronal oscillations underlying sustained attention, thus boosting productivity and well-being.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Can background music be designed to help people focus? Removing vocals or other distracting sounds is a good start, but little is known about how the acoustic features of music shape behavior. Amplitude modulation (quick variation in loudness) is one such feature, describing the difference between ‘smooth’ or ‘rough’ sounds. These loudness fluctuations can drive neural activity to become synchronized (a process called entrainment), which may boost task performance under the right conditions. If so, this could be particularly relevant to those suffering from ADHD or subclinical symptoms, in whom the targeted neural activity is known to be weaker.
We manipulated the rate and depth of intensity modulations added to otherwise identical background music. We quantified the differences in modulation properties between tracks, while ensuring that nothing else was different. Then we had people play a simple ‘game’, a test of sustained attention, while one of these tracks played in the background. Adding modulation to music aided performance over a range of parameters (depths and rates), but participants reporting more ADHD-like qualities were particularly sensitive and showed a benefit only for the rate and depth that we hypothesized would be most effective based on neurophysiology.
Neuroimaging (EEG and fMRI) showed that the added modulation successfully produces synchronized activity at rates much higher than usually found in music, and this spreads across the brain far beyond auditory regions. These changes in the rate and scale of neural oscillations could underlie the effects on performance. At the same time, fMRI results suggest this music increases activity in attention networks and decreases activity in the ‘default mode’ networks associated with mind-wandering and boredom.
Since many everyday tasks don’t require hearing, people often use background music, not only to keep themselves entertained, but also to help improve focus or regulate emotions. Given this, surprisingly few studies have manipulated features of music in a controlled manner to uncover relationships between background music and behavior. We tested a method of creating music for focus, using rapid amplitude modulations designed to alter neural oscillations, and found evidence from brain and behavior that this is an effective approach, both in the general population and in those who need help focusing.
Last Modified: 12/30/2018
Modified by: Kevin J Woods
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