A Non-invasive New Therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorder
By: Connie Hanson B.Ed. (Special Education) and Neuroacoustic Sound Therapist
Introduction
In Canada, among children and youth 5-17 years of age:
- An estimated 1 in 66 have been diagnosed with ASD
- Males were identified with ASD 4x more frequently than females. One in 42 males was diagnosed with ASD. One in 165 females was diagnosed with ASD.
- More than half of children and youth (56%) had received their diagnosis by age 6, and more than 90% of children and youth were diagnosed by age 12. [6]
“The main answer, for decades, has been mind-numbing DRUGS: obviously, without success”. [1]
Human beings have been using sound to access deeper states of consciousness, expanded awareness, and heal the body for thousands of years. Chanting, toning, Tibetan singing bowls, Chinese meditation gongs, and the use of mantras are just a few examples. [4]
“It is akin to the picking of a lock on the neurophysiologic processes that the body already uses to heal itself,” said Dr. Thompson, director of the Center for Neuroacoustic Research, San Diego. [5]
The Process
Your child or you will be placed on a sound table (a modified massage table with left and right sides separated). As the sound table vibrates it sweeps through the body, and we will see the body respond. The sound table delivers sound not only to the ears but to the spinal column, muscles, and skeletal elements as well.
We then run a 30-minute bed session with you or your child either laying or sitting on the bed with headphones on. For younger children, we would have age-appropriate toys for them to engage with or bring activities that your child loves.
Dr. Thompson has created a sequence to access different parts of your child’s brain to trigger neuron development during each weekly session. He perfected this sequence in a 2-year study with autistic children. The brain states focused on in sequence are Delta, DMN1, Epsilon 1, MU, Gamma, and Alpha-Beta.
We send you home with a digital copy of you or your child’s session to play at home. You listen to these soundtracks at least once a day for seven days. Then you come back each week for another bed session and a new soundtrack that works on a different part of the brain. Again, play the next soundtrack and listen to this one, at least once a day for seven days.
You or your child listens to the complete set of 6 tracks. When complete you listen to them all again for a second time. Then you listen to them a 3 rd time. The result is after a 4-5-month period you or your child has listened to each track 21 times. This retrains the brain and synchronizes brain hemispheres. These digital soundtracks can be listened to for as many times as you want but only once a day. They can also be restarted at anytime. Remember this is a gym for the brain. This therapy would be useful for anyone at any age on the autism spectrum.
We commit ourselves to work with you throughout the process and make our facilities available to you as often as possible based on your personal schedule. It is also important that you and your child commit to the process for the best outcome.
Bio-Tuning Explained: Brain Entrainment
Dr. Thompson’s clinical research at the Neuroacoustic Research center with thousands of patients over the years has led to groundbreaking discoveries in how sound frequency patterns built into musical tracks induce brainwave entrainment. [3]
Much of his work is based on two key principles: Firstly, that every tissue, just like every physical object, will resonate to very specific sound frequencies; Secondly, that there are mechanisms within the nervous system that synchronize neurophysiologic functions and cycles with coherent rhythmic pulsations from the external world. [5]
The brain tends to match its own wave pulses to those of exterior sound pulses in the environment, a phenomenon is known as “Acoustic Brainwave Entrainment”. It is possible to induce a Delta brainwave state by listening to a soundtrack with sound pulses beating at a delta brainwave speed. Using this scientific principle, we have developed sophisticated new ways of inducing this principle in soundtracks of music to subtly cause this brainwave entrainment response. [2]
Hemisphere Synchronization
Binaural beats are auditory brainstem responses. The fact that when these binaural beats were listened to with headphones caused the right/left hemispheres of the brain to synchronize their electrical activity across the bundles of nerve fibres that connect the two halves of the brain together. [2]
“Hemisphere Synchronization” was a novel discovery in neuroscience – no one had ever been able to do this before and now it was being done with sound waves. Clinically, we were to discover that using this principle of Hemisphere Synchronization for neurological conditions, in which the communication between the hemispheres was compromised, has extremely positive results in patients with conditions like Autism.
One of the features of Autism is a spectrum of various degrees of non-communication of the hemispheres of the brain. Binaural Beats through headphones facilitating hemisphere synchronization is precisely what the brain needs to re-route neural communication again through these pathways and wake them back up. [2]
With this new technological method of entraining brainwaves with binaural beats using headphones, it is possible to float the brain in this hemisphere synchronicity state for prolonged periods of time. Each time we do this, it is like exercising a new brain function – which makes the brain more able to engage this function as its normal repertoire of behaviour. It is like going to a gym on the inside and working the “muscle” of your brain. [4]
Brain States
Healing through sound, or Bio-tuning created by Dr. Jeffry Thompson is a therapy that has shown clinically the effectiveness that brain entrainment can have on Autistic kids. According to Dr. Thompson, autistic kids seem to have a background of early head trauma, from a closed head injury, whiplash, or birth trauma such as “C” section or forceps deliveries. This would lead to the dis-coordination of the right/left hemispheres we also see in ADD and ADHD kids. Binaural Beats through headphones clear this problem quite effectively in Dr. Thompson’s clinical experience.
In Autistic kids, there is clear EEG evidence of other deficiencies in brainwave function.
MU: This type of activity shows a specific type of electrical waveform in the brain, the “Wicket” pattern, and is associated with what is called “Mirror Neuron” activity. This is how the brain learns socialization skills by mirroring brain activity in sync with the body language and facial expressions and intonations of others around. [3]
Gamma: “Brain activity is required for the “binding” of information from all our senses so the world around us “hangs together” and makes sense. Without this, the world seems fractured and incoherent”.
Delta: This waveform is associated with the deep sleep stage, and when awake associated with stillness in the mind [3]. The main role of the Delta brain state is to heal your physical body.
DMN1: (Default Mode Network) The frontal zone is associated with one’s sense of self on the inside. The posterior zone is linked to a sense of self, related to all on the outside. The right/left temporal zones are related to one’s sense of the present moment compared with memories of the past. Many specific diseases and disorders are now confirmed to be related to a de-synchronization of the Default Mode Network of these four zones: Autism, ADD/ADHD, Depression, PTSD, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, etc. [3]
Epsilon: associated with extraordinary experiences, moments of epiphany, personal realization, “psychic” experiences, “precognitive” moments, and spiritual revelation.
Alpha/Beta: This borderline state has been shown to be associated with high IQ “prodigy” children and linked to high levels of information processing in the brain…high states of learning ability. [3]
These soundtracks represent a deeper level of “Primordial Sounds” and are unique to Dr.Thompson’s field of study. As you listen, the sounds move around, above, below, and in some cases through your body.
Bio-tuning, available exclusively in Canada, at The Healing Touch Wellness Center in Cochrane.
#201, 118-1 st Avenue West, Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1Z6
Call us at 403-BIOTUNE (403-246-8863)
Try it out and see if it works for you or your child. The first session is complimentary!
References
[1] “DreamWeaver
House,” Dreamweaverhouse.org, 2012. [Online]. Available: http://www.dreamweaverhouse.org/about.html
[Accessed: 31-Aug-2020]
[2]“DreamWeaver House,” Dreamweaverhouse.org, 2012. [Online].
Available: http://www.dreamweaverhouse.org/brainwave_entrainment_frequencies_full.html
[Accessed:31-Aug-2020]
[3] J. D. Thompson, “The Science Behind the Sounds: Brainwaves and States Of Mind,” 2013.
[4] “The Clinical Use of Sound,” Scientific Sounds Store, 2010. [Online].
Available: https://www.scientificsounds.com/library/the-clinical-use-of-sound
[Accessed: 31-Aug-2020].
[5] “Neuroacoustics: The Healing Power of Sound,” Scientific Sounds Store, 2020. [Online].
Available: https://www.scientificsounds.com/library/neuroacoustics-the-healing-power-of-sound
[Accessed: 31-Aug-2020]
[6] Public Health Agency of Canada, “Infographic: Autism Spectrum Disorder among Children and Youth in Canada 2018 – Canada.ca,” Canada.ca, 2018. [Online]. Available:
[Accessed: 10-Sep-2020]