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As a software engineer, I see the human mind as a beautiful combination of software and hardware. That's why I'm trying to hack my son's brain.
Caleb, 6, suffers from sensory processing disorder. To get a glimpse of what life is like for him, imagine you have no peripheral vision, and you constantly hear echos and distorted, out-of-sync sounds, making it hard to understand speech or appreciate music. When you walk, you can't tell where your legs are, or whether your arms are swinging. Sometimes just keeping your balance is difficult. You exasperate people for doing things you're not even aware of, like bumping into them or not making eye contact.
Like computers that can't multitask, or networks that lose information, this neurological disorder prevents the brain from correctly processing sensory input. The cause of SPD is a mystery, but the effects are very real.
Caleb is very bright, verbal, and a marvelous reader. But his brain can't handle all of the sensory input his body is sending him. His senses work individually to some extent, but when they are combined, his brain loses information.
The traditional treatment for SPD is occupational therapy. But I'm convinced that what Caleb needs instead is for his brain to be reprogrammed, recalibrated. With the help of some professionals and some surreal neurotechnology, we are trying to do just that.
The brain hack is a three-part "multisensory intervention program" at the Sensory Learning Center in Boulder, Colorado. A technician there subjects him to specialized light, sound, and motion therapy in a controlled environment. The goal is to help his brain reorganize the way it coordinates multisensory information. I have heard story after amazing story of children who have been helped by this program. It isn't cheap, and it isn't guaranteed, but I have to give my son a chance.
The Auditory
Many people with SPD don't process sound the way they should. Some frequencies sound too loud, too soft, or even delayed. Sometimes certain frequencies are even processed in the wrong hemisphere of the brain, a condition called auditory laterality. These conditions can make the perception of sound so confusing that some people suffering from it never learn how to talk.
Part of Caleb's hack is to retrain his brain to diminish over-sensitive frequencies and correct auditory laterality. Wearing headphones, he listens to music clips equalized to help his brain listen differently -- without hot-spots, delays, or garbled information.
The treatment is based on the work of Dr. Guy Berard, a world-renowned hearing specialist who developed a program called Auditory Integration Training, which involves two 30-minute sessions daily for 10 consecutive days. The results, described in his book Hearing Equals Behavior, are encouraging.
The Visual
Another problem common in SPD is a constricted field of vision. The brain doesn't process all of the information the eyes are seeing. This impacts everything from situational awareness to coordinating balance.
The second part of the hack involves intense colored lights tuned to precise frequencies. The colors create synaptic responses in different parts of the brain. During the treatment he is in a completely dark room, staring up at a pulsing colored light.
Other types of light therapy are commonly used to treat depression in adults and jaundice in children. This particular treatment is backed by research (.pdf) and has been highly successful in helping patients develop a widened field of vision and improved color reception. With these benefits often come better memory, learning, situational awareness, and even social skills.
The Vestibular
Caleb also has a subset of SPD known as sensory-seeking. It is as though his ability to register motion, pressure, and even pain is significantly muted. As a result, he seeks out extra stimulation in any number of ways. He careens through life, often running into things and people with abandon.
To address these problems, the third modality in Caleb's treatment deals with the vestibular system, which is responsible for controlling your balance and posture.
While lying on a specially-designed motion table, he listens to the special headphones and looks at the colored lights. The table mimics the motion of a ferris wheel, proceeding in a circle either along the anterior-posterior axis (head to toe), or from side to side.
Anecdotal evidence (.pdf - via the internet archive) shows that this multi-sensory integration approach, done in a controlled manner, helps the brain coordinate and permanently connect sensory inputs more effectively then when they are exercised alone.
The Total Package
As I write, Caleb is in his last day of treatment at the Center. This afternoon the first phase will be complete, and tomorrow we will administer only the light therapy at home for another 18 days. Over the weeks and months to come, we should start to notice improvements in his movement, his behavior, and even his relationships.
That is, of course, if the hack works.
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