The Zen Program from Widex

Increased levels of stress are more frequent in the hearing-impaired population than in normal-hearing people. Because of the high frequency of stress in the hearing-impaired population and the ability of music to reduce stress, Widex has included a feature in the high end mind440 hearing aid which allows users to listen to a choice of diff erent music styles. Generally researchers agree that music can aff ect the ability to perform specifi c tasks by masking unwanted and disturbing noise. The positive emotional and psychological eff ects of music are also well documented in the literature, with most researchers agreeing that music can reduce stress and make people feel more relaxed, comfortable and less anxious. However, the music must be simple, instrumental, non-repetitive and without lyrics to produce these eff ects. Inspired by this knowledge, Widex has developed the ZenTM program – a harmonic sound program based on fractal technology off ering a choice of soothing tones and chimes. Two studies have examined the Zen styles’ potential for enhancing relaxation and concentration in hearingimpaired listeners. The results suggest that the Zen styles may be helpful to a large portion of the hearingimpaired population. WIDEXPRESS WWW.WIDEX.COM 1 NO.22 Review article: Hanne Pernille Andersen, MA, PhD, Audiological Research and Communication, Widex Music or broadband noise may also be used in combination with counselling to manage tinnitus. A broadband noise has therefore been included in the Zen program as an additional tool for tinnitus management in combination with counselling. Stress-related consequences of hearing loss Studies have shown that hearing loss very often has a negative impact on a person’s physical and emotional well-being (e.g., Dalton et al., 2003; Fellinger et al. 2007). Reactions vary from person to person, but many hearingimpaired people experience some social, psychological and physical challenges as a result of their hearing loss. Social consequences of hearing loss may for instance involve avoiding certain people or situations. Psychological consequences may include embarrassment, problems concentrating, anxiety, low self-esteem and insecurity. Negative physical consequences may include tiredness or exhaustion, headache, muscle tension, sleeping problems, and increased stress levels, to mention just a few. The increased stress levels resulting from extra energy spent on listening by people with hearing loss have inspired Widex to develop a new feature for relaxation and concentration. The feature, which is included in the mind440 hearing aid, exploits the potential of music to enhance relaxation and concentration in humans. The eff ect of music on the ability to relax If we take a look at how music has been used for relaxation purposes throughout history, we fi nd that music’s ability to aff ect people in a relaxing manner has been known for thousands of years. In several classical cultures, music has played an important role in the treatment of illnesses. We know that ancient Greeks used music to heal, and in Arab culture, stringed instrument music, combined with the sound of water from fountains, was an essential part of the environment in hospitals and therapeutic centres (Mornhinweg, 1992; Musica Humana, 2007). In modern medical science, where focus has been on accuracy and measurability, this knowledge has been practically forgotten, and it is therefore a relatively new initiative that hospitals and researchers in various parts of the world have started doing tests with music to document music’s eff ect on human beings. Especially the psychological eff ects of music have been widely studied, with several positive outcomes. Studies have shown that relaxing music has the ability to aff ect the unconscious part of our system, reducing breathing rate, heart rhythm, chronic stress and blood pressure. Some of these studies have even shown that the eff ect of music on the ability to relax is higher than the eff ect of complete silence (e.g., Khalfa et al., 2003; Scheufele, 2000). There is now general agreement among researchers that music has the ability to aff ect people psychologically, making them feel more at ease, more relaxed and less anxious (e.g, Hanser, 1985; Staum, 2000). Some studies conducted at hospitals have also shown that the use of music decreased the amount of stress patients experienced when hospitalised and the amount of pain-killing medicine needed (Musica Humana, 2007). THE ABILITY OF MUSIC TO IMPROVE CONCENTRATION Music’s ability to improve concentration has also been an object of study. One area of focus has been the eff ect of background noise on the performance in diff erent cognitive tasks. Not unexpectedly, noise has turned out to be a source of stress and negatively aff ect concentration and productivity (Furnham & Strbac, 2002). This fi nding has been especially interesting for companies with open-plan offi ces, as the biggest advantage of this setup – i.e. the possibility of free communication – has also turned out to be the biggest disadvantage. Several initiatives have been introduced to overcome this problem and enhance productivity and the ability to concentrate in such environments, including rearrangement of furniture, white noise masking and the use of background music (Loewen & Sudfeld, 1992; Furnham & Strbac 2002; Banbury & Berry, 1998; 2005). Important musical components relaxation Despite the fact that it is individual whether a piece of music is relaxing or not, there are some musical components that seem to be decisive. One of these is the basic rhythm a fast basic rhythm seems to result in a faster heart rhythm and pulse rate, and a slow basic rhythm in a slower heart rhythm and pulse rate. Besides that, there are indications that volume and intensity may have the same eff ect, i.e., a higher volume generally results in a faster heart rhythm. Not all studies have found this to be the case, however. The discrepancies may be due to a personality factor. Studies have shown that extroverts prefer and are able to handle larger amounts of auditory stimuli than introverts and prefer a higher volume level than introverts (Daoussis & McKelvie, 1986). The same fundamental considerations that apply to heart rhythm seem to apply to breathing rate. A slow musical rhythm seems to produce calmness and relaxation, while a faster rhythm may result in stress and anxiety. Furthermore, the breathing pattern seems to be directly infl uenced by the emotional content of the music, so that pieces of music evoking strong feelings and emotions may lead to large variations in the respiratory pattern (Myskja, 1999). Important musical components concentration The eff ect of background music on the performance of diff erent tasks has been the subject of many studies. Type of music is a factor that seems to be relevant in relation to music’s ability to facilitate concentration in a noisy environment. The literature reports that soothing music, rock music and classical music are all types of music that in some way can infl uence a person’s ability to concentrate on a specifi c task. Researchers have tried to determine whether the complexity of music is a possible factor. For example, Kiger (1989) concluded that scores on a reading comprehension test were higher under conditions with low-information music than with silence or high-information music (Kiger, 1989, cited in Furnham & Strbac, 2002). Another factor that seems to be of importance if music is to facilitate concentration is level of arousal and personality. Some studies have shown that using preferred music as background sound will enhance task performance. With this starting point, several researchers have investigated the infl uence of background music on diff erent personality types’ ability to concentrate. Several arrived at the same result, namely that listening to background music with low information load will often enhance concentration on a task, although the way muWIDEXPRESS WWW.WIDEX.COM 2 sic will infl uence the listener diff ers with personality and preference for type of music. More specifi cally, background music can be distracting for introverts as their optimal arousal level is quickly exceeded, whereas it is stimulating for extroverts (Daoussis & McKelvie, 1986; Furnham & Bradley, 1997; Furnham & Strbac, 2002). Reviewing the literature it does seem that music has the potential of facilitating concentration when presented in the right way to the listener. Many studies have shown that if the music is relaxing, it will produce results in the area of concentration and task performance. To facilitate concentration it seems that the information load of the music should be low. Furthermore, being able to adjust the volume and individualise the music to meet the listener’s individual preferences appear to be important factors too. THE WIDEX ZENTM PROGRAM In the Widex ZenTM program, we have tried to accommodate as many of the abovementioned factors as possible. Concentration seems to improve if the information load of the music is low. Moreover, the listeners should ideally be able to adjust the volume and individualise the music to meet their own musical preferences too. For relaxation to be obtained, the basic rhythm should probably be relatively slow, and elements evoking strong emotions in the listener should be avoided. Adjustable volume is also important to accommodate the many individual preferences, and the listener should be given a choice of diff erent styles. Besides that, it seems essential that the music is rather predictable without sudden changes. In the Widex ZenTM program, the music is based on fractal technology, which ensures that the music is predictable without repeating itself. The user has a choice of “musical tones” called Zen styles, and it is possible to further individualise these by adjusting tempo and pitch of the styles. The music consists of sequences of tones with no lyrics to avoid strong emotions in the listener. The volume can be adjusted in Compass or by using the volume control on the hearing aid. Furthermore the ZenTM program includes a setting where the microphone sound is deactivated and only the Zen tones are played. To make sure that the Zen tones are audible at all times the ZenTM program takes the individual hearing loss and the background noise into consideration when generating the fractal music. STUDIES EVALUATING THE ZEN STYLES’ POTENTIAL FOR FACILITATING RELAXATION AND CONCENTRATION IN HEARING AID USERS The effi cacy of the Zen tones in helping hearing aid users concentrate and relax has been evaluated in several studies. In a clinical fi eld trial conducted by Widex’ Applied Research Team, 32 subjects with varying degrees of hearing loss (Clinical fi eld trial #33-07. Data on fi le), ranging from mild to profound, tested three Zen styles (Aqua, Coral and Lavender) for an average of 18 days. The subjects reported their overall impression of the Zen styles using a 0 to 10 point scale with 0 being “very bad” and 10 being “very good”. A fractal is a shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (to a large extent) a reduced-size copy of the whole. 0 125 250 50