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WHAT IS INTERACTIVE METRONOME(IM)
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IM is a brain-based neurological and rehabilitative training program developed to improve mental processing abilities; namely attention, motor planning and sequencing. This, in turn, strengthens motor skills, including mobility and gross motor function, and many fundamental cognitive capacities such as planning, organizing, and language. It now is well established that the human brain has the inherent ability to not only repair but remodel itself through a process known as neuroplasticity. What can we do to drive or stimulate this process? Activities such as technical reading (casual reading does not apply) and crosswords can be effective but there are new technologies such as IM that go much further. IM challenges the patient to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer generated reference tone. The difference in IM and a standard metronome (which cannot tell you how close you are to the beat) is a patented audio and visual guidance system that provides immediate feedback measured in milliseconds.
How does IM work?
The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented training process that challenges the patient to precisely match a computer generated beat. Participants are instructed to synchronize various hand and foot exercises to a reference tone heard through headphones. The patient attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions such as tapping his/her toes on a floor sensor mat or clapping while wearing an IM glove with a palm trigger. A patented audio or audio/visual guidance system provides immediate feedback. The difference between the patient’s performance and the computer generated beat is measured in milliseconds. The score indicates timing accuracy. The goal on subsequent sessions is to lower the times or get as close as possible to the reference tone. As this happens, the patient should begin to realize improved focus, better grades, better reaction time for a batter, improved accuracy and better ball striking for a golfer etc.
Who can benefit?
Individuals with motor planning and sequencing problems, speech, and language delays, motor and sensory disorders, learning deficits, and various cognitive and physical difficulties may benefit from the IM program. The IM was patented by a musician and was originally used primarily for stroke rehabilitation and ADHD. However its usage has now expanded into the sports training field.
The fact is, we are all born with particular timing and mental processing capabilities and during our developmental years these qualities develop until they reach a plateau. It is true that some people are blessed with more balance or better rhythm than others. Now, based on the scientific findings on neuroplasticity, there is a safe and drug free way to improve these areas. In the January 202 Newsweek article titled “Rewriting Your Gray Matter” author Shirley Biggs states that you can “teach an old brain new tricks.”
STUDIES ON ADHD
A double blind, placebo-controlled study of 9-12 year old boys diagnosed with ADHD found that those who completed the IM program showed significant patterns of improvement in attention, coordination, and control of aggression/impulsitivity, reading and language processing. This study was published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, March 2001.
An Academic Fluency Study (Jacokes, 2004) consisting of 1500 middle and high school students found that after only 12 sessions of IM training, there was a gain of 2.21 GE (grade levels) in Reading fluency and a 1.66 GE gain in Math fluency. Pre and post testing for this study utilized the Woodcock-Johnson III assessment tool. In another study, 86 children grades 1-4 received IM training resulting in a 18-20% growth in reading fluency (Psychology in the Schools. Improvement in Interval Time Tracking and Effects of Reading Achievement- Taub, McGrew & Keith, 2007).
Relative to sports, a study reported in the Journal of General Psychology compared a control group of golfers who read golf literature only to a group that received ten hours of IM training. Neither group was allowed to practice between the pre and post tests. The results were a 20% overall improvement in accuracy with a 14% with the 9 iron, a 24% gain with the 7 iron and a 14% improvement in accuracy with the driver. Advanced golfers participating in the study showed a 35% overall increase in accuracy.
TIMING IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT STUDY
A correlation study of 585 children in a public school district found significant correlations between IM score and academic performance in reading mathematics, language, science, social studies, and study skills. This suggests that timing and rhythmicity play a foundational role in the cognitive processes underlying performance in these academic areas. The results were published by the High/Scope Foundation, a prestigious, non-profit educational research institution.
IM is a cutting edge neurological assessment and treatment tool. If you are familiar with recent advances in strength training then you have probably heard of combination exercises that engage upper and lower body muscles during a single exercise. IM works in a similar way in that IM training impacts several interval/timing structures of the brain with each repetition. The first is the dorso-lateral pre-frontal gyrus which is responsible for motor planning and aspects of speech, for example, filtering background noise while you are multi-tasking. Secondly, the basal ganglia is involved many aspects of voluntary movements including sequencing and planning, muscle tone and posture. Coordinating the fine movements required for knitting is an example of this brain function. The cingulate gyrus has to do with evaluative, executive and emotional functioning and has connection to frontal eye fields. Stimulating this part of the brain may help the patient becomes more engaged in sustaining eye contact during conversations.