Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for Tinnitus

There is some resistance to brain altering / stimulation with electrodes. It comes from the anti cyborg camp. These people do not want us to be robots nor do they want people that are controlled by machines. I can understand this but I see it as pacemakers, they assist people without taking over control.

 

Is there any update to this study? It is really something else.

 

@Beste I sent an email to them and they are wrapping up phase 2, they have not responded to when phase 3 will begin but there will definitely be a phase 3. I believe results will be posted at the end of the study. If they are moving to phase 3, that's a pretty good sign. This could potentially be a very effective universal treatment that targets the tinnitus directly and not hearing loss.

 

What exactly do you mean by "Phase"? The study discussed in this thread is a Phase I study (and it is the only DBS study of tinnitus on clinicaltrials.gov), and it is not scheduled to end until March 2019. (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01988688)

In the description of the study, they discuss three "Periods". Do you mean that they are finishing up with the second period? This could be construed as the second "phase" of the Phase I trial, but it means something very different than a "Phase II trial".

 

@Aaron123 Sorry, I didn't word that correctly. They mentioned the possibility of enrolling me in a "later phase" of the study (their exact words) but right now, they were only looking for local participants due to logistics.

 

Apparantly Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla) stepped also in in this business with the new start-up Neuralink:

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-neuralink-connect-brains-computer-neural-lace-2017-3

The absolute goal is 'Brain enhancement' but for first stage R&D they are going to focus on conditions like epilepsy and depression.

If you hear the same 'peep' sound of an opportunity like me let's send the man a request over social media (know he is active on Twitter).

 

There will always be people against something, I just hope the politician don't listen to this anti-scientific bullsh*t. Otherwise we get the same issue as stemcell research.

 

@Cal18 do know if any results emerged from this trial? Anecdotal even.

 

@Jim51042, they keep everything on the DL until after the trial - I also believe participants are not allowed to talk about it. I get the feeling though that it may be going well or they wouldn't be continuing.

 

We did have a member here who claimed to be in this study. He/she contacted a me for some reason through PM a year ago. I directed the person to this thread but he/she never answered or came back to TT at all.

 

What was her evaluation of the procedures impact?

 

I can quote what he/she wrote to me:

"I'm in the study for Dbs for tinnitus and it doesnot cause tinnitus.Havent been cured yet but they are working on it."

Again, I have no clue why this person chose to contact me with this information. The person never answered or came back to TT after this.

 

Let's make a new thread about this. Asked him over twitter if this could be used for tinnitus.

 

I wouldn't bother. Everything you could want to know about it can be found here: http://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html

Worth noting that it's an incredibly long, dense, and amazing article. It honestly might even be the best single article I've ever read.

 

Here good video that points to DBS

Tinnitus: Ringing in the Brain | Josef...

 

Hi. Total newbie on the site. As it happens I am a huge fan of a doctor named Stuart Hameroff. He is a Doctor of Anesthesiology at the University of Arizona and Director of Center for Consciousness Studies at the same. I was attracted to his work on theories of consciousness which I very highly recommend. But a couple of years ago he started investigating DBS via ultrasound. Totally non-invasive and very focused. He has been working with a company out here in California to develop a clinical ultra sound device designed specifically for this purpose. http://www.berkeleyultrasound.com/research

As far as I can tell this still isn't available as a therapy. I keep checking back waiting to see if it is. There is no mention of tinnitus as yet but seems it would be every bit as applicable as traditional DBS. As an aside and since all these technologies seem to also do things like improve mood and focus there is another company that was involved with Dr. Hameroff early on and has gone in a slightly different direction. But they have a product out now. But as yet they are only talking in terms of mood, focus, sleep, and energy. But stress does seem to be implicated in elevated levels of tinnitus. http://www.thync.com/science

 

Has anyone heard anything about this?

 

A new PhD paper has been released for the treatment of tinnitus with Deep Brain Stimulation:

Exploring deep brain stimulation as a treatment for tinnitus
dr. J.V. Smit
Maastricht University
(co)promotores: R.J. Stokroos en Y. Temel en A. Jahanshahianvar
21st september 2018

https://www.kno-leden.nl/leden/public/doc/Proefschrift J. Smit -21-9-2018 - Exploring deep brain stimulation as a treatment for tinnitus-compressed.pdf

 

Interesting study, although I only read the summary

 

I am just curious. Why does this not get more attention?

In 2017 Josef Rauschecker also seemed to think there is viability in this type of treatment. It been studied since 2011 but it seems on the edges of treatment rather than main stream.

 

This approach makes so much sense on an intuitive level, that's why people were slapping eels on people's heads in 47 AD. Sign me up, I want to get rid of this horrible squeezing inside my head.

 

To anybody open to alternative treatments that "may" have some similarities to DBS, I would suggest looking into "scalp acupuncture". I've read some promising things in the past, but never bookmarked them. -- Just did a quick search, and came up with this article. -- @Bill Bauer, @Greg Sacramento, @humptydumpty69, @lymebite

Acupuncture for tinnitus immediate relief

CONCLUSION
There was a significant reduction in the score of pre and post needling moments in both groups (control and study groups). In the study group the reduction is greater compared to the controls.

 

Is this already out? Or are they still in trial?

 

Because it involves implanting a neurostimulator in the brain, instead of in your upper or lower back. Much more risks I think.

 

Human caudate nucleus subdivisions in tinnitus modulation
Philip L. Perez 1 , Sarah S. Wang 2 , Susan Heath 3 , Jennifer Henderson-Sabes 1 ,Danielle Mizuiri 4 , Leighton B. Hinkley 4 , Srikantan S. Nagarajan 1 , 4 , Paul S. Larson 3 , 5 and Steven W. Cheung 1 , 3
VIEW LESS
1 Departments of 1Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and
2 2Neurology;
3 3Surgical Services, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and
4 Departments of 4Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and
5 5Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, California
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3171/2018.10.JNS181659

OBJECTIVE
The object of this study was to define caudate nucleus locations responsive to intraoperative direct electrical stimulation for tinnitus loudness modulation and relate those locations to functional connectivity maps between caudate nucleus subdivisions and auditory cortex.

METHODS
Six awake study participants who underwent bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrode placement in the caudate nucleus as part of a phase I clinical trial were analyzed for tinnitus modulation in response to acute stimulation at 20 locations. Resting-state 3-T functional MRI (fMRI) was used to compare connectivity strength between centroids of tinnitus loudness-reducing or loudness-nonreducing caudate locations and the auditory cortex in the 6 DBS phase I trial participants and 14 other neuroimaging participants with a Tinnitus Functional Index > 50.

RESULTS
Acute tinnitus loudness reduction was observed at 5 caudate locations, 4 positioned at the body and 1 at the head of the caudate nucleus in normalized Montreal Neurological Institute space. The remaining 15 electrical stimulation interrogations of the caudate head failed to reduce tinnitus loudness. Compared to the caudate head, the body subdivision had stronger functional connectivity to the auditory cortex on fMRI (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Acute tinnitus loudness reduction was more readily achieved by electrical stimulation of the caudate nucleus body. Compared to the caudate head, the caudate body has stronger functional connectivity to the auditory cortex. These first-in-human findings provide insight into the functional anatomy of caudate nucleus subdivisions and may inform future target selection in a basal ganglia–centric neuromodulation approach to treat medically refractory tinnitus.

Clinical trial registration no.: NCT01988688 (clinicaltrials.gov)


DBS = deep brain stimulation

 

I’m an operating room RN and participate weekly in DBS cases for Parkinson’s. One of the surgeons I work with has seen occasional tinnitus reduction as an unintentional side effect of DBS treatment. This technology has come a long way since this thread was started. The equipment used has come a long way and the surgery is faster than it used to be. We’ve started taking CT scans in the operating room and matching it up with live action 3D brain tracking. My hospital even has a robot that helps with electrode placement.

In my opinion the things holding this back are that it still requires surgery to access the brain. We still need to drill a hole in your skull in order to place the electrodes and make a pocket elsewhere to place a generator. Once in the brain they need to have a target they believe will relieve the tinnitus.

This is absolutely brain surgery. The OR time, anesthesia costs, and equipment costs will be massive. It will be a tough sell to get insurance to pay for this.

Until DBS can be done reliably without being this invasive it won’t be a viable treatment.

 

I read it in an article by a Dutch PhD student. The ancients were using eels to do neuromodulation 2000 years ago. No more eels, but deep brain stimulation as I understand it is very intrusive and effective. Let's go to the regenerative stuff and neuromodulation first... If it's chronic and you're at wits' end then DBS is the way to go.

When they refine the process a bit, we may all have a go. Read the article posted earlier in the thread, it's very interesting

 

Just read your post... That about says it all... Thanks spedgas, your job must be fascinating.