Why can an ordinary sound trigger distress, anxiety, avoidance, or an intense emotional reaction?

Sound sensitivity is often treated as a behavior to manage or an environment to accommodate. Families avoid certain places, leave events early, rely on ear protection, and adjust daily life to reduce exposure. These strategies may provide temporary relief, but they do not address the larger question: Can the brain learn to respond differently to sound?

In this webinar, Alex Doman and Jay R. Lucker, EdD, CCC A/SLP, FAAA, explore what may be happening within the auditory system, the brain, and the nervous system when sound is experienced as threatening. They explain how sound can become connected to emotional memory, why sound sensitivity may appear as anxiety or behavior, and how auditory brain training is designed to support a different response.

The discussion includes hyperacusis, misophonia, auditory processing, autism related sound sensitivity, and the relationship between the classical and nonclassical auditory pathways.

In this webinar, you will learn:

🔹 How the auditory system and nervous system shape responses to sound
🔹 Why sound sensitivity may appear as anxiety, avoidance, or emotional dysregulation
🔹 How certain sounds and environments can become connected to threat and emotional memory
🔹 What current research reveals about auditory brain training and sound sensitivity
🔹 How The Listening Program® and Acoustical Neuromodulation (ANM) support change through different approaches

The presenters also examine the role of accommodations such as masking, sound blocking, and ear protection. While these tools may help someone tolerate a difficult moment, the webinar explores whether relying on them over time helps the brain become more comfortable with sound.

Research Discussed in the Webinar

The webinar includes findings from recent peer-reviewed research involving children with autism and severe sensory over-responsivity to sound who completed The Listening Program. The results showed meaningful changes in hearing sensitivity, sensory processing, social participation, and everyday functioning, with improvements maintained after the listening period ended.

Alex and Dr. Lucker also discuss research on Acoustical Neuromodulation, a structured tonal listening protocol developed for autism related sound sensitivity. ANM uses calibrated tonal sequences without melody, lyrics, or emotional associations.

Together, these approaches reflect more than 25 years of research and development focused on how the brain processes sound and how that response may change through structured auditory input.

The implications extend beyond sound tolerance. When the nervous system no longer treats sound as a constant signal of danger, there may be greater capacity for attention, communication, emotional regulation, learning, social connection, and participation in everyday life.

About the Presenters

Alex Doman is the founder and CEO of Advanced Brain Technologies and the creator of The Listening Program®, a neuroscience-based music-listening therapy used by families and professionals worldwide.

Jay R. Lucker, EdD, CCC A/SLP, FAAA, is Professor Emeritus at Howard University and an invited professor at North Carolina Central University. He is an audiologist and speech-language pathologist whose work focuses on auditory processing, sound sensitivity, and the neurological systems involved in listening.

Advanced Brain Technologies develops research-informed auditory brain training programs designed to improve how the brain processes sound. Our programs have been used by families, educators, clinicians, and other professionals in homes, schools, clinics, and hospitals worldwide since 1998.