New research at Henry Ford Hospital links tinnitus to the brain

Tinnitus has been thought to be due to ear damage. Now a study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit suggests it is linked to the brain and not just damage to the ear.

Tinnitus is a ringing, buzzing, hissing or a crackling that only the person who has it can hear. Doctors rarely can find the source of tinnitus, which is a chronic noise in the head or in one or both ears. With the wide variety of noise that sufferers have it can be just like the sound of a whisper or it can cause debilitating pain. As a long time sufferer of it I can attest to the fact that it can be very annoying or at times barely noticeable but it is always there. Mine started with a bout of Meniere's disease. There are many other causes which could include blood circulation problems, a tumor, allergies, thyroid problems to name just a few. More causes can be found here. It is estimated that there are over 50 million patients that suffer from tinnitus. A new study at Henry Ford Hospital has found a non-invasive imaging technique, magnetoencephalography (MEG), that could help in diagnosing tinnitus by determining the site of perception in the brain. The doctor could then target the area with electrical or chemical therapies to lessen the symptoms of the patient. The study was presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO. The co-author of the study Michael D. Seidman, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of the Division of Otologic/Neurotolgic Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital said, "Until now, we had no way of pinpointing the specific location of tinnitus in the brain." As reported by Henry Ford health system, co-author Susan M. Bowyer, Ph.D. bioscientific senior researcher, Department of Neurology at Henry Ford Hospital explained, "Since MEG can detect brain activity occurring at each instant in time, we are able to detect brain activity involved in the network or flow of information across the brain over a 10-minute time interval. Using MEG, we can actually see the areas in the brain that are generating the patient's tinnitus, which allows us to target it and treat it." The imaging techniques that are now used are PET and fMRI which only give a general area of the brain but cannot determine the specific location of the brain where the tinnitus symptoms come from. MEG "measures the very small magnetic fields generated by intracellular electrical currents in the neurons of the brain." Henry Ford and 19 other sites are the only ones who have a MEG scanner. At present MEG is used for pre-surgical brain mapping for patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor removal or Epilepsy treatment. Dr. Seidman, director of the Otolaryngology Research Laboratory and co-director of the Tinnitus Center at Henry Ford said, "With PET and fMRI, most of the auditory cortex of the brain lights up with activity during imaging. MEG, however, is a much more sophisticated machine and it can identify a specific tone or topic point, so only a small area in the brain lights up. It's like having the lights on in only the city of Detroit, compared to having the lights on in the entire state of Michigan."