Tinnitus
A condition that often accompanies hearing loss is
tinnitus, which is a "phantom noise". The intensity can vary
from mild to overwhelming; the sound can be intermittent or continuous,
musical or irritating, pure tone or a cacophony of noise.
March
2003 - Laine Waggoner just put together a great
tinnitus update, and she has generously shared it with us.
August 2003 - A New Zealand study confirms what
many of you already know - tinnitus causes depression.
December
2004 - Is Botox the latest miracle cure for tinnitus?
October
2005 - An
"Advance for Audiologists" article reports that a recently
approved drug to treat alcoholism may also be effective in treating
tinnitus!
February
2006 - When noise plagues you
February
2006 - Tinnitus victim not responding to implant
February
2006 - Lives 'devastated' by tinnitus
February
2006 - Melatonin
pills may help ease tinnitus
March
2006 - A recent study concludes that people with chronic,
moderate tinnitus don't perform as well on some tests of cognitive
function as people without tinnitus. Here's the
report.
March 2006 - Easing
learning with chronic tinnitus
March
2006 - Twelve
million seek medical help for tinnitus
March
2006 - Tinnitus may interfere with tough
mental tasks
May 2006 - Struggling
with tinnitus
May 2006 - New
treatment for people with tinnitus!
May 2006 -
How to treat tinnitus
May 2006 -
You can manage but not cure tinnitus
June 2006 - Tinnitus: Do you Hear that Ringing Noise?
October 2006 - ATA Promotes More Research to Benefit
Veterans with Tinnitus
December 2006 - Clinical Factors of Tinnitus Influence
Perceived Loudness and Annoyance
December 2006 - Veteran's Tinnitus Case Goes to Court
January 2007 - Sound
Advice About Tinnitus Treatment
January 2007 - Psychotherapy
Quiets Concerns Over Ringing in the Ears
January 2007 -
Beta-Carotene
and Tinnitus
February 2007 - Low-pitch
treatment alleviates ringing sound of tinnitus
February
2007 - Auris Medical Initiating Clinical Trial with
Tinnitus Drug
May 2007 - Treatments
target tinnitus' constant ring
June 2007 - For
Those With Hearing Loss, the Noise Can Be Awful
June 2007 - Basque Research Announces Successful
Tinnitus Treatment
July 2007 - TRT Effective in Treating Tinnitus
August 2007 - Tinnitus Help Hard to Find
August 2007 - Progress in explaining
tinnitus via brain imaging
August 2007 -
Tinnitus: Addressing Neurological, Audiological, and Psychological Aspects
with Customized Therapy
August 2007 -
That ringing in your ears can be caused by many
things
August 2007 -
Changing Reactions to Tinnitus
September 2007 - Neuromonics Launches First U.S.
Clinical Study to Assess Long-Term Tinnitus Treatment
October 2007 - Searching For The Brain Center
Responsible For Tinnitus
October 2007 -
Brain Retraining Promises Aid for Tinnitus
November 2007 - Cells in Developing Ear May Explain
Tinnitus
November 2007 -
Iraq & Afghanistan war vets
suffer from hearing loss, tinnitus
November 2007 -
Music Therapy Shows Promise for Tinnitus Sufferers
December 2007 -
Experimental treatment takes aim
against dreadful tinnitus
January 2008 -
Research lifts hopes for
better treatment of tinnitus
January 2008 -
Overactive Nerves May Account for "Ringing
in the Ears"
January 2008 - The Brain Activity Behind Tinnitus
Uncovered
January 2008 - Auris Medical Conducting Clinical
Trials on Tinnitus Treatment
February 2008 - Tinnitus, Herbal Supplements & You
February 2008 - Ringing in Your Ears? It Might Be in Your
Jaw
February 2008 - Somatosensory Neurons May Play Role in
Tinnitus Pathogenesis
February 2008 - The United States Versus Tinnitus
March 2008 - Repetitive Transcranial Stimulation May
Relieve Tinnitus
April 2008 - New Therapies Fight Phantom Noises of Tinnitus
April 2008 - Clear Products offers product for tinnitus
relief
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2003
The New Zealand Herald is reporting that tinnitus can cause
depression. Tinnitus is sound that the brain "invents".
Different people hear different sounds, including ringing, crackling,
and buzzing. It becomes more common as people age, and is often
associated with hearing loss. A number of "causes" have been
suggested, including trauma, loud noise, infection, and medications.
The Herald reports that about 40% of New Zealanders over the age of
60 suffer from tinnitus, and that one in 50 New Zealanders suffer
tinnitus severe enough to affect their daily lives.
But the really interesting report concerns a University of Otago
study of 338 tinnitus suffers, half of whom had tinnitus-related
depression. It's probably no surprise to a tinnitus sufferer that
tinnitus causes depression, but it's almost certainly news to the
unafflicted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February
2006
Voluntarily
pumping sound into one's ears has become commonplace among music lovers
in this iPod nation. But imagine walking around with an irritating noise
in your ears for 24 hours a day, without being able to shut it off. Such
is the plight of people with tinnitus. It's often described as ringing
in the ears, but tinnitus also can manifest as hissing, sizzling or
cricketlike chirping, said Ingrid Edwards, an audiologist at The Heuser
Hearing Institute in Louisville. The problem may be temporary, such as
the ringing that anyone might experience after a loud concert, or it may
be chronic.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February
2006
Despair
is replacing optimism for an Aurora nurse who had hoped a new procedure
would stem the ringing in her ears that has made her life a cacophonous
misery. Lynn Steinman, 56, has described the ringing as akin to "a
kid's tin whistle blowing in your ear 24 hours a day." "I'm
very discouraged," Steinman said last week. "It just isn't
going well. It's worse than it was before." Steinman, whose
tinnitus had grown progressively worse since it first hit 15 years ago,
signed up for an experimental trial through the Medical College of
Wisconsin. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February
2006
Research
into the effects of tinnitus - a buzzing or ringing in the ears - shows
that it has a profound impact on all aspects of people's lives. The
findings come from work carried out by two leading charities in the
field of hearing loss. More than 40% of the 900 surveyed said their
condition had a negative effect on their personal relationships. And
more than a quarter of those people blamed tinnitus for having a reduced
sex drive. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melatonin
supplements might curb tinnitus, possibly by improving sleep, a new
study shows. Melatonin is a hormone made in the brain's pineal gland.
Natural melatonin helps regulate cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Levels
of natural melatonin tend to fade with age. Melatonin is also sold as a
supplement. People with tinnitus sense ringing, roaring, or humming
sounds in their ears. About 15 million people in the U.S. consider their
tinnitus to be a significant problem, according to statistics cited in
the new study. The study appears in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck
Surgery. The researchers included Jay Piccirillo, MD, FACS, of
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March
2005
Chronic
tinnitus may make it harder to master new tasks, but practice could help
overcome that hurdle, researchers report. People with tinnitus hear
ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling, or other sounds without any known
cause. Tinnitus can be fleeting or constant and vary in loudness. Full
story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2006
The first
hint I had that something was wrong with my hearing was during a long
phone conversation. I unwittingly transferred the receiver from my usual
left to right ear. Damn, there was a drastic drop in the pitch and the
voice from the other end appeared faint and distant. Not able to carry on
the conversation, I switched the receiver back to my left and Wow! my
hearing was back and clear. This left me with little doubt that everything
was not normal with my right ear.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One February
morning in 1984, Judith Schwegman of Carbondale woke up with a ringing
sound in her ears and felt dizzy. "My first thought was: How do I stop
this?" Schwegman said. After many visits to doctors who specialize in ear
problems (otolaryngologists), many tests, and trying various medications,
Schwegman still had the ringing in her ears. She has lived with tinnitus
for more than twenty years. [. . .] According to the American Academy of
Otolaryngology, in the United States nearly 36 million people are dealing
with this condition, on a daily basis. For some, this is a nuisance. For
others, it is a life-changing condition.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2006
Disabled American Veterans is petitioning the
nation's highest court to review the Federal Circuit case of Smith v.
Nicholson. In that case the court held that veterans with tinnitus, a
form of hearing loss, in both ears are not entitled to two separate 10
percent disability ratings. "The government's response to that
petition is presently due to be filed (today)," said Ronald L.
Smith, deputy general counsel for veterans claims, in a letter to
Vaught. "The Supreme Court will probably decide whether to grant
the petition during the first quarter of next year." Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January
2007
A
buzzing or ringing sound that you can hear but other people can't is
known as tinnitus (pronounced tin-NIGHT-us or TIN-it-us). We've all
experienced this annoying sensation one time or another, usually after
hearing a very loud noise. For example, using a snowmobile or lawn mower
or attending a loud concert might trigger a brief bout of tinnitus.
Ringing is common, but some people also experience relentless buzzing,
cricket-like chirping, hissing or humming. Whatever the sound, the
distinguishing feature is that it doesn't have an external cause. Most
bouts of tinnitus are brief, but for some sufferers, the condition is
prolonged. Men experience tinnitus more often than women. Like so many
other conditions, it becomes more common with age. It can occur in one
ear or in both. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2007
I went ahead and performed a literature search on
Vitamin A and tinnitus using the PubMed database of peer reviewed
research studies (www.pubmed.org). I found several articles on the topic
from the 50s and the 60s but there were not any abstracts listed, so I
could not read the results. If Vitamin A would have worked back then, it
would be common medical practice for treating tinnitus today. I did find
one research study out of a German research journal from the early 80s
(Brand, H. (1983) that looked at 96 cased of tinnitus treated with
vasodilators and Vitamin A. The treatment method was reported as
“unsatisfactory”. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2007
Imagine that you are plagued day and night with
terrible ringing, buzzing, or hissing in your ear - a sound that
torments you all day, prevents you from falling asleep, and wakes you up
when you manage to nod off. It could be enough to drive you to thoughts
of suicide. Steve Ratner never had thoughts that black, but he came
close when he developed a high-pitched ringing in his ears after an
infection in his right ear burst through the ear drum. "When it
started (32 years ago), it was so bad, I'd be lying on my back in bed,
saying, 'God, why is this happening to me?' It was driving me crazy. I
couldn't concentrate on anything." Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June
2007
The
hardest thing I've had to come to terms with in the 17 years since my
hearing started to fail is not silence but intrusive noises: They ring
in my ears, obscure the sounds I want to listen to and startle me when
they amplify themselves without warning. There I am, working quietly at
my desk, when the knock at my door becomes -- Crash! -- a tympanic
interruption, and I leap to attention. There are times when I want to
stand up and yell, "Keep it down!"
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2007
Teresa Heitzmann of the University Hospital of Navarre in Spain has
recommended TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) treatment , based on the
neurophysiological model, for those suffering from tinnitus. Heitzmann
points out that the aim of the treatment is to get the patient to become
accustomed to the "noise." To achieve this, therapeutic advice and sound
therapy are used. The father of TRT is professor Pawel J. Jastreboff,
who has defined tinnitus as a phantom auditory perception perceived only
by the person. On applying the neurophysiological model in the
university hospital, Heitzmann concluded that getting used to the
tinnitus and thereby, achieving the cessation of discomfort, occurred in
between 80% and 84% of patients, including, at times, a higher
proportion. It is the treatment that has the highest success rate
currently, she reports.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
Some people describe the phantom sounds as so
constant and so disabling, they've quit their jobs, living almost as
shut-ins in a world dominated by ringing, buzzing, hissing or roaring very
often only they can hear. The disorder is called tinnitus. And only now,
after having languished for decades as an orphan disorder, are dramatic
advances being made. Experiments are under way mostly in Europe, using
sophisticated imaging techniques that allow doctors to "see" areas in the
brain where sound signals are no longer translated - progress that could
help doctors target new treatments.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
When tinnitus becomes a constant disturbance
rather than just an occasional perception, a comprehensive rehabilitation
approach is required that addresses the audiological (hearing loss),
neurological (adaptive response/"central gain"), and psychological
(attention and reaction) aspects of the condition. By targeting all of
these aspects together, a therapy is more likely to provide consistent and
rapid improvements in tinnitus awareness and disturbance. This forms the
basis for the development of the Neuromonics(r) Tinnitus Treatment. This
article describes current thinking about the causes of tinnitus and how
the Neuromonics therapy works, and highlights data from current
peer-reviewed studies.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question: Is tinnitus -- or ringing in the ear --
a disease?
Answer: It's the most common ear symptom there is.
It affects about 36 million people. It's a symptom because it has a cause.
Now the variety of things that can cause people to have noise in their
ears is extensive. The most common is because the hearing nerve in the
inner ear is not normal. That can be due to age-related hearing loss or
damage to the ears as a result of noise exposure. There's a host of other
problems that can contribute to this -- ear infections, metabolic problems
like high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, abnormalities of
blood flow, medication, or certain kinds of inner ear tumors.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
The first really important thing to know about
tinnitus is just how many people have it. About 10% of the adult
population has tinnitus-a huge number of people. The next thing to know
is that there is a big variation in how people react to tinnitus. Most
people with tinnitus get along without being distressed by it. Other
people suffering from tinnitus may experience feelings of anxiety or
depression. They can become withdrawn or restless. They frequently
complain of poor sleep, difficulty in everyday functioning, or a reduced
quality of life. Some people feel the need for antidepressants, sleeping
pills, or other tranquilizers. . . . Obviously, most people would rather
not have tinnitus; however, after an initial stress reaction to it, most
carry on leading normal, healthy, fulfilling lives. The majority do not
attend tinnitus clinics or require medication.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2007
The Silverstein Institute in Sarasota tests a
promising new treatment for tinnitus. On Bob Neff's right hip was what
looked like a slightly oversized Apple iPod or an MP3 player. The Siesta
Key resident had just come from the YMCA, where he looked like one of many
listening to some motivational music while working out. With 110 million
sold, Apple's players are ubiquitous at gyms. Neff's device, though,
carries the label Neuromonics, making it by comparison virtually unique.
It plays a personally customized mix of music underlaid with noise. Neff
is testing it as one of the first patients in a clinical trial for a new
treatment for tinnitus, the medical term for ringing in the ears, a
condition believed to afflict millions of people. The trial is based at
the Silverstein Institute, the Sarasota medical practice focused on
treating hearing loss. The institute is home to the Ear Research
Foundation, which this fall is running nine clinical trials, including
that of Neff's innocuous device. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2007
Timothy Brown, a 55-year-old industrial
electrician, didn't pay much attention to the ringing in his ears he heard
occasionally last winter. But, come March, when the high-pitched noise
turned nonstop and showed no sign of going away, he suddenly could think
of nothing else. "[After] the first few days, I went to the family doctor
thinking it was an ear infection," he said. That was ruled out. "It wasn't
a problem, but it lingered two or three weeks and then it became
traumatic," Mr. Brown said. His sleep was disrupted; he could no longer
tolerate the level of sound generated when his big family of siblings got
together. "Traumatic" is a word to which millions of people with the same
symptoms -- ringing or other noises in the ears not caused by external
stimulation -- can relate. What they suffer from is a sensation of various
and sometimes indeterminate causes called "tinnitus." The American
Tinnitus Association estimates 50 million Americans have or have had
tinnitus. Of that number, some 12 million seek medical help, and 2 million
of them are debilitated by it, experiencing family problems, job problems,
sleep problems or even depression.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2007
The phantom noises were so dreadfully real and
relentless that when he learned of a highly experimental treatment that
entailed removing part of the skull, he eagerly signed up. And others have
done the same. It's a pioneering treatment being tried for tinnitus as
well as major depression in people who repeatedly have failed conventional
therapies. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin now have tried
the surgery on a handful of tinnitus and depression patients. The
treatments seem to be showing some early signs of benefit, even though
doctors don't fully understand how they work. The surgery involves
removing part of the skull and placing electrodes on the cerebral cortex
and then tunneling under skin and running a wire down to an electrical
generator that is implanted under the collarbone.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2008
Tinnitus research has made great strides in the
past decade, offering new options for successful management of this
sometimes debilitating condition and raising hopes of improved treatments
in the near future. Scientists are beginning to gain a better
understanding of the causes of tinnitus, which is a big first step toward
improving management of the disorder. Already, some new treatments are
gaining wider visibility- and respectability-as they demonstrate positive
results. And significant progress is being made in imaging techniques and
animal studies that hold the promise of better treatments to come. There
is even a possibility of pharmacological approaches in the next 5 to 10
years, according to researchers working in this discipline. Other more
experimental studies also are ongoing.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor: I have to admit that this sounds like a pretty bizarre
hypothesis to me. But anything that could potentially treat tinnitus is
worth pursuing! Here's the scoop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do your ears ring after a loud concert? Nerves that sense touch in your
face and neck may be behind the racket in your brain, University of
Michigan researchers say.
Touch-sensing nerve cells step up their activity in the brain after
hearing cells are damaged, a study by U-M Kresge Hearing Research
Institute scientists shows. Hyperactivity of these touch-sensing neurons
likely plays an important role in tinnitus, often called "ringing in the
ears." The study, now online in the European Journal of Neuroscience, will
appear in the journal's first January issue.
The research findings were made in animals, but they suggest that
available treatments such as acupuncture, if used to target nerves in the
head and neck, may provide relief for some people plagued by tinnitus,
says Susan E. Shore, Ph.D., lead author of the study and research
professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and the Kresge Hearing
Research Institute at the U-M Medical School.
People with tinnitus sense ringing or other sounds in their ears or
head when there is no outside source. Whether it's mild and intermittent
or chronic and severe, tinnitus affects about one in 10 people. An
estimated 13 million people in Western Europe and the United States seek
medical advice for it. It is a growing problem for war veterans. Since
2000, the number of veterans receiving service-connected disability for
tinnitus has increased by at least 18 percent each year, according to the
American Tinnitus Association.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2008
Tinnitus - hearing phantom sounds - affects
millions of people, but because the physiological mechanisms behind the
condition are largely unknown, treatment options are limited. Now research
published in the online open access journal BMC Biology shows how a method
that temporarily (usually for several seconds) reduces tinnitus in some
patients links the condition to brain activity. Nina Kahlbrock of the
University of Konstanz, Germany and Nathan Weisz of INSERM in Lyon, France
investigated the relationship between the tinnitus sensation and
spontaneous brain activity. Two techniques called tinnitus masking and
residual inhibition involve using a sound that temporarily reduces
tinnitus (masking). The effect sometimes continues after the masking sound
has stopped (residual inhibition or RI). The researchers used RI to reduce
eight sufferers' tinnitus intensity, in an effect lasting approximately 30
seconds, coupled with source-space projected magnetencephalographic (MEG)
data to track their brain activity.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
Recently, James W. Hall III, PhD, from the
University of Florida, wrote, "If the average tinnitus patient were
managed properly by the first professional they saw, most patients
wouldn't have such severe problems." This statement points up the
difficulty of managing tinnitus patients in an age where they are
bombarded with advertisements about the latest miracle cure for their
health problems. Often, patients may ask about medications they have seen
on the Internet or in health food stores. They may bring up questions
about vitamins or ask for your input about the help various herbal
supplements have promised. But many of the so-called "cures" available on
the Internet and elsewhere for tinnitus can be harmful. For instance, if a
patient asks you about an eardrop advertised on the Internet, it is safe
to advise that no eardrop stops tinnitus.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
People
dismiss tinnitus, or a ringing in the ears, as being all in their heads.
Maybe it is, but it's not a figment of the imagination, it's in the
muscles and bones of our jaws. While it is possible it's just a
psychosomatic (i.e. imaginary) effect, you may be experiencing a
potentially debilitating condition called TMJ or temporomandibular joint
syndrome. TMJS? TMD? MPD? Temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJS),
temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), and mysofacial pain dysfunction (MPD)
are three different names for one set of symptoms.
These
symptoms of TMJ/TMD include:
·
Headaches
· Jaw pain
· Facial
pain
· Sore,
chipped, broken or worn teeth
·
Unexplained tingling in the arms or hands
In addition to tinnitus. If you have some
combination of these symptoms you may be suffering from TMJ/TMD.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
Dorsal cochlear nucleus responses to trigeminal
stimulation increase after noise-induced hearing loss, suggesting that
somatosensory neurons may play a role in the pathogenesis of tinnitus,
according to the findings of a guinea pig study. "Previous studies have
linked hyperactivity in the cochlear nucleus (i.e., increased spontaneous
firing rates) to tinnitus measured behaviorally," Dr. Susan E. Shore from
University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, told Reuters Health.
"Our study suggests that the neurons that step up their activity in the
cochlear nucleus are those that are activated by somatosensory inputs
(especially those from the head and neck region)."
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
The National Institute for Deafness and Other
Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will look to collaborate together
while researching tinnitus. The NIDCD wrote in its report to Congress on
the FY 2009 budget that it "and representatives from the Department of
Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have been in discussions
about their tinnitus research portfolios with the hope of exploring
possible research collaborations." "This is exactly what we've hoped for.
The NIDCD has taken this up and they have taken it very seriously," says
Jennifer DuPriest, the director of public affairs at the American Tinnitus
Association. Previously, there were no efforts to coordinate research
between the different federal government entities that research tinnitus.
Efforts to have the various government agencies join forces began to gain
traction after Congressional committees supervising the appropriation of
funds for government programs made legislative recommendations in 2008
that the NIDCD, VA and DOD increase their collaborative efforts in the
fight against tinnitus.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2008
Daily sessions of repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation over the left temporoparietal cortex may be a useful treatment
for tinnitus, the results of a preliminary study published in the February
issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry suggest.
"Treatment of chronic tinnitus is difficult," Dr. Eman M. Khedr, of Assiut
University Hospital in Egypt, and colleagues note. "Pharmacotherapy
(antidepressants, benzodiazepines), cognitive therapies, or electronic
devices that attempt to cancel the tinnitus have all been tried either
separately or in combination but the success rate is not high." "Recently,
a number of promising reports have appeared, suggesting that repetitive
transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) might be a possible treatment,"
the researchers explain.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2008
Often caused by prolonged or sudden exposure to
loud noises, tinnitus (pronounced tin-NIGHT-us or TIN-nit-us) is becoming
an increasingly common complaint, particularly among soldiers returning
from combat, users of portable music players, and aging baby boomers
reared on rock 'n' roll. (Other causes include stress, some kinds of
chemotherapy, head and neck trauma, sinus infections, and multiple
sclerosis.) Although there is no cure, researchers say they have never had
a better understanding of the cascade of physiological and psychological
mechanisms responsible for tinnitus. As a result, new treatments under
investigation - some of them already on the market - show promise in
helping patients manage the ringing, pinging and hissing that otherwise
drives them to distraction. The most promising therapies, experts say, are
based on discoveries made in the last five years about the brain activity
of people with tinnitus. With brain-scanning equipment like functional
magnetic resonance imaging, researchers in the United States and Europe
have independently discovered that the brain areas responsible for
interpreting sound and producing fearful emotions are exceptionally active
in people who complain of tinnitus. "We've discovered that tinnitus is not
so much ringing in the ears as ringing in the brain," said Thomas J.
Brozoski, a tinnitus researcher at Southern Illinois University School of
Medicine in Springfield.
Full Story
