We revisited with an old friend of the podcast: Dr. Josef Rauschecker. He was our first ever guest – go back and listen to that episode! – who came up with the famous ‘gating’ theory of tinnitus.
Josef’s gating theory poses that while neural ‘noise’ may arise in the ear and lower brain regions due to hearing loss, this noise is typically cancelled out further up the auditory pathway. For most people at least, but not for those experiencing tinnitus.
We speak to Josef in person at his office in Georgetown University about how his theory has evolved, his views on psychological treatments for tinnitus, why animal studies for tinnitus often fail, and how we can quickly get new tinnitus medications to market.
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Skip to: 00:00 Introducing Dr. Rauschecker and explaining his ‘gating’ theory.
We found experimental evidence that particular brain regions are changed when people have severe tinnitus […] which are known for causing depression […], and that opened up the door for a new attack on this disorder.”
Skip to: 06:56 ‘Tinnitus disorder’ and summarizing the gating theory.
Skip to: 09:50 How his theory has evolved based on recent MRI studies.
Skip to: 12:24 Views on psychological treatments for tinnitus.
I think we can make progress by understanding the neurobiological basis for psychological therapies that work, at least in some people.
Skip to: 16:04 Animal models and using monkeys humanely to cure tinnitus.
Skip to: 21:14 Speeding up new treatments by testing existing medications.
Off label use of medication is very common in medicine and sometimes you get surprisingly positive results out of these studies; so that’s the plan with serotonin.
Skip to: 27:15 Lidocaine cures tinnitus (temporarily) in 70% of patients.
Skip to: 30:20 New funding opportunities through aging, chronic pain, and more.
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