Habituation Linked to Sensory Memory

Based on a new study it seems that habituation may be based on your brain's sensory memory.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/brb3.1242

Those who have sensory memory deficits, will unfortunately have persistent prediction errors. This means the tinnitus signal is consistently detected as a new signal and activates the brain salience network and consequently prevents habituation to tinnitus.


Please Remember:

This doesn’t mean everyone who is having trouble habituating has this issue. I would assume many factors go into this and after a certain amount of time this can be concluded. Keep in mind some people can take as long as 3 years to habituate. Habituation for some can take a very long time, which may be due to sensory memory deficits.

Regardless, I am happy that for those who can’t habituate, this study can be used to shut down the “you're not trying hard enough” statements.


Thank you to @urgentresearch for finding this study.

 

This sounds like something I could have. Which could maybe explain why I haven't been able to habituate... maybe.

But there is hopefully still hope for me in terms of habituating. I am after all "only" about 22 months into this.

But it is hard (impossible?) to habituate to hyperacusis... I think.

 

Happy to see the research is now in good hands for discussion.

 

Here's hoping that this isn't the case for me and that I can habituate to my increased tinnitus tone. I had it audible only when I went to sleep but had eventually tuned it out, then after multiple years it has come back with a vengeance to be at the front of my senses 24/7.

Thanks for sharing the article though.

 

I have had T for three years and as long as my brain is active in a project or am very interested in something I can go for hours and not hear my T. When im alone watching something boring on TV or listening to music it is present loud and clear. I am not afraid of it and it sometimes can be slightly annoying. At night I do play sounds of nature to mask it so am I habituated???

 

Going for hours and not hearing your tinnitus... I am jealous man, congratulations...You're definitely on the right track..."habituated" is subjective, isn't it? You sound mellow, and not tortured... I hope, that's my impression... "slightly annoying" your word choice in reference to your tinnitus, so yeah...you're habituated.

No... go and celebrate and do something nice for yourself... well done.

 

I've gone from noticing/thinking about my Tinnitus 500x per day to between 5-15x per day. Some days I forget about it altogether. But... it took 2+ years to get to that point and if I go to a place with louder noise (a loud restaurant or movie) without hearing protection, it can trigger a 1-2 week spike where I am back to being constantly annoyed. So I am habituated but delicately and I still need to adjust my life around my Tinnitus to avoid it getting worse.

 

Bloody hell Jack - What d’you think I am mate,
a bleedin’ scientist!
I’m an unemployable trombonist - ‘a manually operated pneumatic pitch approximater.’

 

This is very important, and is given very little attention.
So be it.
Thanks @urgentresearch for your contribution.

 

This is how it works for pretty much everyone. Really great way to sum it up.

The last step is you have it, its loud and you just don't care anymore.

 

So when will it happen to me? I am about 2 years into tinnitus (and hyperacusis).

 

You looks habituated to the gym. Nice biceps! I was in great shape before this mess and now I'm just now getting back into my workout routine.

 

In my opinion the worst thing you can do is to set a date or keep track of it, it will come naturally , my tinnitus can get pretty bad where I hear it over everything but it's most of the time only slightly annoying . It comes with ups and downs like everything else in life .

 

I know I shouldn't set a date and I am also straining away from that, because what I have read from most people on here, is that habituation happens within the first two years and seeing as that has not happened to me, I have no choice but to moderate my expectations. I am just hoping that I will eventually get there. I know I will likely never reach the level of "does not care about my tinnitus/hyperacusis at all" - that's too unrealistic, but I would like to get to the point where it does not bring me down a lot, and causes me less distress. I AM in a somewhat better place then in the beginning, but there is still much room for improvement.

Maybe I am one of those rare people I have heard of that takes 10 years to habituate. Oops! Set a date just then Just kidding of course. I have no time horizon on habituation any longer.......hopefully it happens at some point. Maybe not.......or Neuromod/Susan Shore cures me (yeah right!)

 

However, millions of people with tinnitus are severely debilitated by it. I mean, that's what this study is about, it shows that not everyone can habituate. Habituation comes naturally to many and can be achieved through certain strategies such as CBT for others but for many the current treatments aren't enough. @TheDanishGirl This obviously doesn't mean that you can't habituate!
Edit: I just think there are so many great threads on here about the habituation process, positive stories, positivity, coping, all of that - this is the first (?) scientific proof that some people really can't habituate and that it's not just their attitude.

 

Everyone is different... I had tinnitus and typeracusis. I got myself really worked up when I first got this. My hearing is moderate to profound... My hyperacusis took a long while too calm down. You can't get better until the hyperacusis calms down and you don't habituate to that. In my case and my daughter's the hyperacusis was brought about by extreme anxiety and fear. The theory is we fear something so our bodies turn up our senses to better deal with the threat. In this case it's hearing to better sense the danger. Once I just accepted it and started to get a grip on my fear, the hyperacusis started to slowly go away. Before then I was at jet engine tinnitus levels.

Clonazepam really helped me out during that time and it might be something you look into. If Clonazepam reduces your tinnitus volume then you have tinnitus brought about by extreme anxiety. If you take it and it stays at the same level then I think not. Again everyone is different. It took 6 to 9 months for my hyperacusis to go away. My daughter still has it after 2 years and she can't get control of her anxiety so it won't go away. It is better though since she is finding better ways to deal. I think the hyperacusis actually amplifies the tinnitus. If this is the case then you need to address the hyperacusis. If your hyperacusis is brought about by a different reason then I'm not sure how you can habituate. The hyperacusis will keep your anxiety levels high and make it impossible for your to habituate.

I hope this helps. If you think you might have something similar PM me. It hasn't been an easy road.... I did all the things we read about to get better, get tons of sleep, exercise, 30min to an hour of elliptical, eat right, only happy thoughts, no negative thoughts, no caffeine, no nicotine, replace fear with anger, don't stress, etc etc.

So you can and did get better...... There is hope!!!! And given enough time I think it's possible. You also said you still have some distress..... That has to go to zero to get the hyperacusis under control. I know it sounds stupid but if you think you can get better you will, if you think you can get worse, you will get worse. That's the way tinnitus works. I don't know how to get too much better, but I know tons of ways to get worse.

 

@RB2014
I have had hyperacusis for nearly 2 years and it hasn't gotten better. Even on days when my tinnitus distress is reduced to near zero the hyperacusis does not calm down. I think this is the level it will stay at. My tinnitus is not reactive and does not seem to be affected by the hyperacusis at all......at least not my regular tinnitus......I have an extra intermittent buzzing vibrating tone that may be related to hyperacusis, but luckily it is not 24/7.

I actually took benzos the first year with tinnitus and it never turned down the volume/intensity of my tinnitus. Just made me a bit more relaxed. I am now benzo free for about 8 months now.

 

Agreed, hyperacusis won't calm down... It doesn't fluctuate like tinnitus. It stays with you and either gets slowly better or slowly worse. It also takes time, lots of time for it to go away. Just the fact that you have it will cause you anxiety and stress, which will keep it from getting better. There is no habituation to hyperacusis. You can't ignore or avoid it. It has to go away for you to get better. My only advice is if you watch Star Trek, become a Vulcan. No feeling, no emotion. Things will happen and you must not pay attention to them. People will die around you and you must be numb. The things that happen around you must not bother you at all. That was the difference between my daughter and I. I was able to get better and she keeps herself in a state of anxiety so it doesn't go away. Again, it may not work for everyone, but it worked for me and not her and I have figured out the reason.

I think it is worth a shot though since you have gotten better. The benzos will calm you down, which I believe helps in the healing process for tinnitus and hyperacusis. You should stay off of them though since you are past the initial stages.

My tinnitus didn't react to my hyperacusis, but only to my anxiety. It was extremely loud for me at first when I had the hyperacusis. Once I was able to get that under control the hyperacusis slowly, very slowly went away.

 

I don't watch Star Trek, but I can say that I cannot be numb. I am human after all, and unless you dope yourself with heavy drugs, a human being will never be numb. Feelings are like breathing... We can't not do it/have them.

My tinnitus does not react much to my anxiety either. Whether I have a very-low-anxiety day or a high-anxiety day: the volume of my tinnitus stays the same.

I also don't agree that one can't avoid hyperacusis. There are many hours where I can't tell I have hyperacusis: for instance watching tv or working at the computer. It's the T that I can never avoid. It is always there.

 

It's like a Chinese finger-trap. The more you try and solve it and the more you care about it, the harder it is to forget about it and start habituating. It's only when you truly accept it that you will stop thinking about it as much. This is easy to say and easy to understand intellectually but really hard to do in practice. That's why it took me over 2 years and why if I get exposed to loud noise I still regress.

 

Brain damage is a hard thing to recover from...

 

Its funny, but we may all have the same ailments, but the way we have them is not all the same. I guess its one of the reasons why its so difficult to find cures.

Agreed with this. Its when you decide to get on with your life and forget about this mess that you start to get better. Its not easy to ignore though...

 

However, I did not manage to find a concrete example of what a Sensory Gating Inventory is.

Toward An Exploration of Habituating to Tinnitus: Perspectives on Sensory Gating.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:

Some tinnitus participants habituate to their tinnitus, but some others do not and complain of its annoyance so much. It has been suggested that tinnitus is a habituation deficit. Habituation and the ability to ignore a sensory input depend on the normal function of filtering mechanism of sensory gating.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this study was to compare behavioral aspects of sensory gating in normal and tinnitus participants to search for the reason why some tinnitus participants habituate to their tinnitus but some others do not.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

This investigation was an observational case-control study.

STUDY SAMPLE:

There were 60 tinnitus participants who were categorized into two tinnitus groups (30 compensated tinnitus participants and 30 decompensated tinnitus participants) based on the complaint of tinnitus annoyance, visual analog scale (VAS) for tinnitus loudness, annoyance, and awareness, scores on Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). Also, there were 30 normal hearing participants without tinnitus as the normal control group.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS:

Sensory Gating Inventory (SGI), TQ, THI, and VAS was obtained from all participants. THI, TQ, VAS, and SGI total scores and their factors were compared among the groups. Correlations between SGI scores with THI, TQ, and VAS score were calculated.

RESULTS:

The results showed that SGI total score and the scores of its four factors were significantly higher in decompensated tinnitus participants compared with compensated tinnitus participants and normal controls. Also, there was a positive correlation between SGI perceptual modulation factor and TQ emotional distress factor and with the VAS for loudness in decompensated tinnitus group.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results suggested that tinnitus associated with behavioral aspects of sensory gating and decompensated tinnitus may be a result of deficient sensory gating.

Source: https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/31304914

 

Thank you so much for finding this!

So happy to see that research is finally focusing more on this - and not from a psychological perspective.

I recently read on a German ENT homepage that 52% with chronic tinnitus aren't distressed or only slightly, 22% are affected moderately, 14% severely and 12% are debilitated to the point of not being able to work anymore - however, there was no source. But that doesn't sound like most people are "totally fine". Going to ask them if they can provide a source for those numbers.