Lowering Stress, Enhancing Focus, Organizational Skills & Quality of Life with Interactive Metronome

Merle is a 36 year old male, a college student and a father who volunteered for the Brain Training project study. He is an Iraqi Conflict veteran who had difficulty with paying attention and “staying on track” with his thoughts.

Merle reported that he was currently going through a separation and possible divorce from his wife, that he was caring for his children and navigating through negotiating custody, that he was attending college full-time, working part-time at two jobs and that he was navigating the bureaucracy of the Veterans Administration in order to meet his expenses and stay in school.

Participating in the IM Study

He chose to participate in the Interactive Metronome® (IM) study with the hope that doing so would primarily help him out in his studies; he also complained of psychosocial stressors impacting his daily performance and quality of life.

Interactive Metronome® (IM) is the only training program that improves timing in the brain in an organized, systematic, flexible and engaging format. Research shows that engaging whole body movements in combination with cognitive tasks leads to overall better outcomes. IM is a patented and unique training tool that challenges thinking and movement simultaneously, providing realtime millisecond feedback to help synchronize the body’s “internal clock.”

Initial Struggles and Skepticism

Merle’s initial approach to the IM tasks was somewhat immature; he required and asked for a good deal of reassurance, talking consistently during the tasks. He would try hard to maintain focus physically squinting his eyes, sticking out his tongue, attempting to stay very still, holding on to his chair to maintain balance and bending his knees to maintain his focus, as the tasks became more difficult.

However, Merle would become easily frustrated due to the number of repetitions and would stop completely when he was not on beat in order to get back on the beat.

He would comment on how IM equipment was inaccurate and was not properly registering his beats and that the IM program was “outdated”, while wandering and looking around the room.

As he approached the latter tasks in the Long Form Assessment (LFA) he would sway back and forth and prep himself by doing dance moves to try and get coordinated. He became more frustrated with the simultaneous tasks and would claim, “That’s not my real score. Whatever, I’m doing better than it says. Let’s get it.”

Merle found tasks requiring fluid circular motion particularly challenging and would fall back on straight clapping. His competitiveness would emerge and remained consistent throughout the IM training although he remained frustrated with the time on task and the number of repetitions.

However when doing well, Merle would have tendency to stop and celebrate and then start back up again.

Tailored IM Protocol and Remarkable Improvements

Midway through the intervention we began to share with Merle his burst reports set at 4.

Using ‘bursts” served as a motivator and over time Merle complained less about IM “tricking” him and he would focus on his scores.

As we approached the latter sessions of the intervention we observed fewer incidents of his mind wandering or of his shifting focus when someone would walk by.

A number of best practices were used to assist Merle in improving his level of focus.

We structured his program around a modified Plan B template and divided the plan into 5 phases for a total of 23 sessions, not including preinterim-post LFA. We met with Merle on the average of 2 sessions per week.

We would make changes in the session attributes based on weekly performance analysis and comparison reports with previous sessions, with first LFA and with best scores, with a focus on maintaining a balance between challenging Merle and allowing for a sense of success.

Conclusion: The Impact of Interactive Metronome®

Merle’s story serves as a powerful testament to the effectiveness of the Interactive Metronome® in not only improving brain timing but also fundamentally enhancing the quality of life for individuals facing cognitive and psychosocial challenges. This case study provides valuable insights for clinicians and individuals interested in understanding the profound impact of targeted cognitive training.