Field: Neuroscience › Sensory SystemsType: No effect foundArea: tinnitusTarget: Game-based frequency discrimination trainingStage: randomized trial
Hypothesis
Building auditory frequency training into a computer game would make people more motivated, so they would train more and their tinnitus would improve more than with standard task-based training.
What failed
In 60 participants over six weeks, the game versions felt more motivating, but compliance was about 70% in all three groups and tinnitus severity and attention did not change differently between groups.
Broken assumption
Making a therapy feel more enjoyable increases how much people do it and how much it helps.
Why
Higher reported motivation did not lead to more training or to more benefit.
From the published paper: Hoare et al. PLoS ONE, 2014. ↗CC BY