Tinnitus is the perception of sound within the human ear (“ringing of the ears”) when no external sound is present. Although is is associated with a ringing noise, there are a range of sounds that someone with the condition can hear. These can take the form of buzzing, humming, grinding or ringing. Sometimes the sound follows the beat of the pulse. There are multiple causes for tinnitus, including a build up of ear wax or a middle ear infection.
A man has been assisting scientists in learning more about brain function in people suffering from tinnitus. According to The Scientist, the man was selected for brain surgery for the condition of severe epilepsy. To aid scientists learn more about tinnitus, the man agreed for his skull to be opened. During the surgery, researchers placed 164 electrodes into the man’s brain. To test what was happening, the scientists pumped through static enhanced ‘white noise’. This was done to simulate the intensity of his ear ringing. The electrodes allowed scientists to measure neural activity.
Picking up the story, lead researcher William Sedley of the University of Newcastle, U.K. told New Scientist magazine: “What was nice about our experiment was that we could compare the brain activity associated with loud and quiet tinnitus without anything like attention or emotion muddying the waters.”
According to BBC Science, the patient’s tinnitus was associated with changes to “brain activity in the primary auditory cortex.” This indicated that tinnitus was linked with a large proportion of the brain
It is hoped that more detailed study and repeated observations will lead to some form of treatment. The research to date has been published in the journal Current Biology. The research paper is headed “Intracranial Mapping of a Cortical Tinnitus System using Residual Inhibition.”
