The sound stimulation method and EEG change analysis for development of digital therapeutics that can stimulate the nervous system: Cortical activation and drug substitution potential

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study is to propose a treatment method and the effect on the nervous system of digital therapeutics, which is a new treatment method to replace surgery and drug prescription for the treatment and prevention of diseases. METHODS: The 20 subjects who participated in the experiment, including men and women, had an average age of 26 ± 2.40 years. The proposed treatment method used three types of sound stimulation and air or bone conduction sound transmission methods to induce total of 6‐time EEG electroencephalogram(EEG) changes. EEG was measured with 200 sampling rate each in the P4, Cz, F8 and T7 channel located in the parietal, central, frontal and temporal lobes, respectively, according to the 10/10 system. A total of 2 min of data were created by extracting EEG signals with less noise from the measured data and the extracted data were applied with a 1–40 Hz Butterworth filter and a 50 Hz notch filter with a quality factor of 30. After that, EEG are subdivided into delta (0.5–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz), and gamma (30–45 Hz) bands. Finally, EEG changes in response to sound stimuli were analyzed using power spectral density and T‐test validation in the frequency band. RESULTS: When a sound stimulus of less than 1 KHz was stimulated by air conduction, brainstem activation was induced and the reticular activation system was activated. In addition, a great potential for replacing drugs was confirmed by inducing changes in the nervous system similar to drugs used for sedation. CONCLUSION: These results will be able to expand the concept of digital therapeutics, and it is expected that it will be developed as a safer treatment method that can replace surgery and drugs.