Interactive Metronome

What Is Interactive Metronome?

Interactive Metronome (IM) is a therapy that addresses a neural timing deficit by improving the ability to plan and sequence motor actions. With it, it is possible to retrain the brain to focus and concentrate more efficiently. Invented by a former rock musician, it was initially used to improve natural timing for musicians and athletes. Interactive Metronome, the company, was founded for the purpose of developing, researching and delivering the IM to children with special needs.

IM equipment consists of a computerized metronome, headsets, foot pads and hand buttons. Trainees are instructed to make smooth, controlled hand and foot motions in a continually repeating pattern, without stopping between beats. They must focus only on the metronome beat and not be interrupted by their own thoughts or things happening around them.

Attention, learning and problem-solving all depend on the capacity to plan and sequence actions and ideas. This capacity relates directly to a child’s ability to follow directions, read, write, do math and, most importantly, think. We have not previously had the technology to enhance these capacities. The IM enhances people’s ability to plan, sequence and organize by integrating auditory processing with timing and rhythm.

Our brain has an internal clock that keeps timing at different intervals – microseconds, milliseconds, seconds, minutes and hours. Scientists call this “temporal processing” where a sound is detected as it reaches one ear microseconds before reaching the other ear. This timing in our brain is responsible for many daily functions we do such as:

• Comprehending what is read
• Remembering information
• Processing speech
• Coordinating motor movements

Who Can Benefit from Interactive Metronome?

Certain learning and developmental disorders and conditions seem to have disrupted timing in the brain such as:

• Learning disabilities
• Auditory processing disorders
• Traumatic brain injury
• Stroke
• Multiple sclerosis
• Speech and language issues

Potential trainees take a pretest which quantifies their ability to recognize timing patterns, selectively attend to tasks and make simple corrections. The pretest indicates if a person has specific deficiency patterns that need to be addressed. Frequently seen deficiency patterns can be overly energetic (hyperballistic), chaotic (not related to the beat), or hyper/hypoanticipatory (occur before or after the beat). Sometimes a subject becomes exceptionally distracted by the computer generated sounds, and the response is thus inappropriate.

Ideally when Interactive Metronome is included with the already existing functional therapy interventions, more rapid improvement can be seen in many of the underlying issues of these disorders and conditions:

• Social skills
• Ability to filter out internal and external distractions
• Build important connections in the brain

What Is the Object of Interactive Metronome Training?

IM training helps individuals improve their ability to focus, attend and concentrate for extended periods of time.  The IM emits changing sounds that systematically prompt the user through a series of exercises like:

• Clapping both hands together
• Tapping one hand alone against the upper thigh
• Alternating toe taps on a floor pad
• Alternating heel taps
• Tapping one toe or heel alone
• Alternating between tapping one hand on the thigh and the other toe on the floor pad
• Balancing on one foot while tapping the other toe

Although many trainees improve in motor ability, the 13 IM treatment exercises are primarily designed to enhance mental concentration.

How Interactive Metronome Works

Interactive Metronome involves wearing a special headset that emits signals and computer-generated tones. The therapy is based on regular clicking of the metronome used by musicians to assist them in keeping beat and marking time. The child or young adult is challenged to precisely match the computer’s rhythmic beat by either clapping hands or tapping feet.

A different set of tones will give different feedback as to whether the response is too early, too late or just right. The computer immediately analyzes the difference in milliseconds between the actual beat and the child or young adult’s motor response. Then the computer will average the ability to maintain focus over whatever extended period of time that takes place in that session.

What Are Interactive Metronome Sessions Like?

Initial treatment sessions help trainees to discriminate between the sounds triggered by their own actions and sound of the steady IM metronome beat. When trainees have broken their existing deficiency patterns, and are able to achieve the prescribed standard IM score, they move to a second phase of training. Next, trainees focus only on the steady reference beat. They ignore the trigger sounds, their own internal thoughts and the unrelated stimuli around them. They learn to keep repeating their motion patterns without making any adjustments.  Doing so results in obvious improvements in their IM scores.

How Long Does the Training Last?

Each subject attends a minimum of 15 one-hour IM sessions, one per day, over a three-to-five week period.  The actual number of IM sessions varies according to each individual’s pre-existing capabilities, needs, neural habits and goals. A session includes four to eight of 13 treatment exercises, repeated according to a set regimen. Trainees practice the exercises at a pre-set tempo and the number of repetitions per exercise increases from 200 during the first session to a maximum of 2,000 during the ninth session. By the end of the IM training, they have systematically exercised their ability to stay on task (focus) approximately 35,000 times.

What Are the Typical Results of Interactive Metronome Training?

Controlled IM studies (see Sources & References, below) show that from session to session, all participants increase the length of time they can selectively focus on the metronome beat without being distracted  They thus improve their planning and sequencing abilities. Occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, developmental optometrists, psychologists, and educators report that IM is an effective complement to existing interventions for children in their practices.

The experience of staying on beat has a very positive psychologically motivating effect. As trainees move from a deliberate to an automatic mode, “entrainment” occurs. Entrainment is a state in which activities take place in an effortless, involuntary fashion.

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