Overview - Who Uses It - Case Studies - Research

HOW IT WORKS

The Interactive Metronome is an advanced brain-based assessment & treatment program developed to directly improve the processing abilities that affect motor planning and sequencing. Motor planning and sequencing are central to human activity – from the coordinated movements needed to walk or climb stairs, to the order of words in a sentence to provide meaning. Interactive Metronome (IM) is the only therapy tool that improves those human capacities by using innovative neurosensory and neuromotor exercises developed to improve the brain's inherent ability to repair or remodel itself through a process called neuroplasticity.

Clinical Foundation
The human brain's efficiency and performance depend on the seamless transition of neuronetwork signals from one area of the brain to another. Findings in a recent study by Neal Alpiner, MD, “Functional MRI Study of the Effects of IM on Auditory-Motor Processing Networks”, suggest that IM works by augmenting internal processing speed within the neuroaxis. The key regions affected appear to include the cerebellum, prefrontal cortex, cingulate gyrus and basal ganglia.

The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the patient to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer-generated reference tone heard through headphones. The patient attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions.

A patented audio or audio and visual guidance system provides immediate feedback measured in milliseconds, and a score is provided.

Over the course of the treatment, patients learn to:

• Focus and attend for longer periods of time
  Increase physical endurance and stamina
  Filter out internal and external distractions
  Improve ability to monitor mental and physical actions as they are occurring
  
• Progressively improve performance