I do. I think they have real potential, though I don't think we have a strong, hypothesis-driven theoretical framework for how to use them in the context of tinnitus. I am interested to see what comes from Amber Leaver's research at UCLA.
Thank you for your continued research into tinnitus. I have been reading now that the protocols to define tinnitus treatment for some years now and it seems we are still figuring out the best protocol to use. Do you have any idea when a standard protocol will be used to treat tinnitus in relation to rTMS and DBS? There is a clinic in London that offers rTMS for tinnitus however it is the only one.
It is like trying to solve the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune with only one or two letters revealed. The parameter space for how/where/when to stimulate using rTMS and DBS is vast and we have very few guiding principles in place for the appropriate use of these technologies for tinnitus, specifically.
As a field, we need to test interventions and not just fiddle around, but we also need good objective markers of the pathophysiology underlying tinnitus. At present, we don't know what it is we are trying to erase, reverse, correct etc. so, unfortunately, these efforts are shots in the dark for the time being.
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