Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 62 posts

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#51

Post by mettamage »

petra wrote: post #43
magnetic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. Tinnitus is believed to be, in many cases, due to the maladaptive plasticity that happens in response to hearing loss. The brain doesn't hear some frequencies so it "reconfigures itself" to amp up the volume on those frequencies. Not unlike our own HiFi amps, if you increase the volume on a line that doesn't carry a signal, you get all kinds of bad noise.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

I have tinnitus.

It was 6 months of agony, then I started to ignore it. It wasn't a conscious decision, the ignoring happened automatically. I only have the high pitched ringing in my ears when it's quiet. It literally feels like a curse though, I can't hear silence.

5 years later, I found out something remarkable (and I hope there's a researcher willing to test this with me and other tinnitus people). It was an accident to figure this out.

When I do the Wim Hof Method, for just a brief moment it's silent. I can kind of have an idea why, since it's silent during an oxygen starvation moment (breathing all your oxygen out and then not breathing for another 2 to 3 minutes).

But for me it was a life saver. Why? Because if I really want to experience true quietness again, I can do the Wim Hof Method and experience about 10 to 20 seconds of quietness per 5 minutes.

My curse is lifted. It's not perfect, but good enough for me.

If you have tinnitus and want to learn the Wim Hof Method from me, feel free to reach out [1], my email is in my profile.

[1] My time is limited, I can teach up a total of 6 people for free who also have tinnitus. If you send an email, I'll put you in an online session with 1 to 2 other people (who also responded to this, so they're all from HN). After 6 people, I need to charge for my time. And please, leave the spots open for people who actually have tinnitus. Don't fake it, there are probably (hopefully) videos online on how to do the Wim Hof Method.

My expectation is that only 0 to 2 people will email me, but what do I know? Also my qualification is that Wim trained me personally for 4 days straight. And I have trained my friends.

Final note: learning the WHM to alleviate yourself from tinnitus is an experiment. It worked for me. It may not work for you. Also, learning the WHM you need someone to be physically there to be a 100% sure about your physical safety (normally that would be me). I am not planning to do anything extreme though.

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#52

Post by Riseed »

mettamage wrote: post #51
petra wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

I have tinnitus. It was 6 months of agony, then I started to ignore it. It wasn't a conscious decision, the ignoring happened automatically. I only have the high pitched ringing in my ears when it's quiet. It literally feels like a curse though, I can't hear silence. 5 years later, I found out something remarkable (and I hope there's a researcher willing to test this with me and other tinnitus people). It was an acci…

Some people have also found temporary relief with the finger drumming method (sometimes called the "Reddit Method/Cure" because it gained popularity after he posted it on Reddit[1]):

> Place the palms of your hands over your ears with fingers resting gently on the back of your head. Your middle fingers should point toward one another just above the base of your skull. Place your index fingers on top of you middle fingers and snap them (the index fingers) onto the skull making a loud, drumming noise. Repeat 40-50 times. Some people experience immediate relief with this method. Repeat several times a day for as long as necessary to reduce tinnitus.Dr. Jan Strydom, of A2Z of Health, Beauty and Fintess.org.

[1] https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3l3uri/these_guys_light...

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#53

Post by tunesmith »

petra wrote: post #43
magnetic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. Tinnitus is believed to be, in many cases, due to the maladaptive plasticity that happens in response to hearing loss. The brain doesn't hear some frequencies so it "reconfigures itself" to amp up the volume on those frequencies. Not unlike our own HiFi amps, if you increase the volume on a line that doesn't carry a signal, you get all kinds of bad noise.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

I was having tinnitus problems and for me what helped was just honestly the awareness that my brain was tricking me. If you put a sensitive mic up against your ear, it won't hear it. Somehow it became easier to ignore until it truly wasn't there anymore.

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#54

Post by abrichr »

petra wrote: post #43
magnetic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. Tinnitus is believed to be, in many cases, due to the maladaptive plasticity that happens in response to hearing loss. The brain doesn't hear some frequencies so it "reconfigures itself" to amp up the volume on those frequencies. Not unlike our own HiFi amps, if you increase the volume on a line that doesn't carry a signal, you get all kinds of bad noise.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

https://www.audionotch.com/

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#55

Post by magnetic »

petra wrote: post #43
magnetic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. Tinnitus is believed to be, in many cases, due to the maladaptive plasticity that happens in response to hearing loss. The brain doesn't hear some frequencies so it "reconfigures itself" to amp up the volume on those frequencies. Not unlike our own HiFi amps, if you increase the volume on a line that doesn't carry a signal, you get all kinds of bad noise.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

There are therapies in the works that attempt at reversing this maladaptive plasticity (and reach the holy grail of silence). The most promising one (and unfortunately, the only one too) uses bi-modal stimulation (sound + electrical) with a very specific timing.

https://innovation.medicine.umich.edu/portfolio_post/shore/

A company called Neuromod has shipped a device that also works on a similar principle a few months ago. The jury is still out in terms of efficacy.

https://www.neuromoddevices.com/

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#56

Post by magnetic »

warent wrote: post #46
petra wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

Anecdotally I think there must be. I recently realized that I'm pretty sure I've had some form of tinnitus since I was a small child and never recognized it as such until recently. The sound inside of my ears is only there when I focus on it or if it's really quiet. The strange thing is because I always heard it when I was falling asleep as a child, it has always been associated with relaxation and rest, and so ends…

Like many other conditions, severity matters. Mild tinnitus is very common and generally not an issue. Severe cases are a very different beast and can easily lead to suicide.

See https://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2016/070...

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#57

Post by rf15 »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #41
WilliamEdward wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is both, it's a double-edged sword. On one hand, your brain can adapt very quickly to new stimuli and adopt good or bad habits such as problem solving or addiction. But, this quick adaptation also means you can 'unlearn' these things very easily too. That's my pop-sci understanding of plasticity, i picked it up when trying to get rid of my bad habits.

Is there a proven and/or simple (but not necessarily "easy" of course) way to get rid of bad habits based on this principle?

I don't think technology can ever fix personality flaws, especially not the desire to find an easy way out instead of doing the work yourself. Or, let's put it this way: any such technology that could overcome your nature would destroy your personality as it was, and probably be used by governments to "fix" their population. So let's not.

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#59

Post by emptysongglass »

petra wrote: post #43
magnetic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. Tinnitus is believed to be, in many cases, due to the maladaptive plasticity that happens in response to hearing loss. The brain doesn't hear some frequencies so it "reconfigures itself" to amp up the volume on those frequencies. Not unlike our own HiFi amps, if you increase the volume on a line that doesn't carry a signal, you get all kinds of bad noise.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

Don't silence, adopt. Use your tinnitus as an object of meditation. You don't even have to literally meditate on it, if you don't want to. Just broaden your awareness to include the tinnitus along with the rest of your sensory experience. With practice, it stops bothering you. With true meditation, it turns blissful.

It is debatable whether the Buddhist Heroic March Sutra (Śūraṅgama Sūtra) is referring to this "sound of silence" as the king of all meditation objects but it is certainly a gateway to it.

Re: Immediate brain plasticity after one hour of brain–computer interface

#60

Post by o-__-o »

tunesmith wrote: post #53
petra wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any way to train the brain to silence those frequencies , even while it's quiet outside ?

I was having tinnitus problems and for me what helped was just honestly the awareness that my brain was tricking me. If you put a sensitive mic up against your ear, it won't hear it. Somehow it became easier to ignore until it truly wasn't there anymore.

Smoking weed helps me, i zone out on other things and the tinnitus "disappears" for almost 2 hours. when it "comes back" i'm usually in the middle of something else and don't notice it until i get to a breakpoint (like a tricky algorithm, and i sit back to think.. then i'll notice that sound again)
Post reply on HN