Abstract
Tinnitus, or the phantom perception of sound, arises from pathological neural activity. Neurophysiological research has shown increased spontaneous firing rates and synchronization along the auditory pathway correlate strongly with behavioral measures of tinnitus. Auditory neurons are plastic, enabling external stimuli to be utilized to elicit long-term changes to spontaneous firing and synchrony. Pathological plasticity can thus be reversed using bimodal auditory plus nonauditory stimulation to reduce tinnitus. This chapter discusses preclinical and clinical evidence for efficacy of bimodal stimulation treatments of tinnitus, with highlights on sham-controlled, double-blinded clinical trials. The results from these studies have shown some efficacy in reducing the severity of tinnitus, based on subjective and objective outcome measures including tinnitus questionnaires and psychophysical tinnitus measurements. While results of some studies have been positive, the degree of benefit and the populations that respond to treatment vary across the studies. Directions and implications of future studies are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants R01-DC004825 (SES), RF1-MH114244-01 (SES), T32-DC00011 (DTM), and P30-DC05188 and a grant from Michigan Institute for Clinical Health Research.
Competing Interests
DTM and SES are co-inventors on US Patent 9,682,232, Personalized auditory-somatosensory stimulation to treat tinnitus. DTM and SES are co-founders of Auricle, Inc.
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Riffle, T.L., Martel, D.T., Jones, G.R., Shore, S.E. (2020). Bimodal Auditory Electrical Stimulation for the Treatment of Tinnitus: Preclinical and Clinical Studies. In: Searchfield, G.D., Zhang, J. (eds) The Behavioral Neuroscience of Tinnitus. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol 51. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2020_180
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