International Interdisciplinary Conference on Brain Imaging and Tinnitus: November 20-22, 2020

For all of you accomplished, knowledgeable science observers and commentators, I saw that our University of Illinois on November 20-22 is having a Zoom presentation titled "International Interdisciplinary Conference on Brain Imaging and Tinnitus." The lecture will be by Jos. J Eggermont of Calgary, CA.

"The Conference will be a Virtual Event and Everyone is Welcome to Attend."

Registration is free.

Website (includes a list of speakers):
https://tinncon.beckman.illinois.edu/

 

Great find, Dave! Imaging of tinnitus is SO important, and where treatment is concerned, will eventually put the issue of placebo to bed.

 

Interview of Professor Jos Eggermont by Professor David Baguley.

An excerpt that brings a lot of questions :

"We found that post-trauma exposure to the EAE, covering the hearing loss frequency range, for three weeks or more prevented the triad of tonotopic map change, increased SFR, and increased neural synchrony from occurring. We also found but did not publish - because we had only three animals in that experiment and never followed up on it - that applying an EAE one week after the end of the trauma had no effect. This suggests a critical period for recovery of the neurotoxic aspects of the hearing loss (in the high-frequency region basally from the region of hair cell loss). Potential consequences for posttrauma treatment of tinnitus in humans by tailored auditory environments are that its effectiveness will greatly decrease with time after the onset of tinnitus."

 

Great, he says there won't be a cure within the next decade.

 

It's unfair to make that assessment while ignoring all of the drugs currently undergoing clinical trials.

 

This is the old study he is talking about. It is weird that almost nothing has been achieved in this field since then.

Enriched Acoustic Environment after Noise Trauma Reduces Hearing Loss and Prevents Cortical Map Reorganization

Exposure to sound of sufficient duration and level causes permanent damage to the peripheral auditory system, which results in the reorganization of the cortical tonotopic map. The changes are such that neurons with pre-exposure tuning to frequencies in the hearing loss range now become tuned to frequencies near the near-normal lower boundary of the hearing loss range, which thus becomes over represented. However, cats exposed to a traumatizing noise and immediately thereafter placed for a few weeks in an enriched acoustic environment presented a much-restricted hearing loss compared with similarly exposed cats that were placed for the same time in a quiet environment. The enriched environment spectrally matched the expected hearing loss range and was ∼40 dB above the level of the expected hearing loss. The hearing loss in the quiet environment-reared cats ranged from 6 to 32 kHz with the largest loss (on average, 40 dB) ranging from 24 to 32 kHz. In contrast, the hearing loss in the enriched-environment cats was restricted to 6-8 kHz at a level of, on average, 35 dB and with 16-32 kHz having normal thresholds. Despite the remaining hearing loss for the enriched-environment cats in the 6-8 kHz range, plastic tonotopic map changes in primary auditory cortex could no longer be demonstrated, suggesting that the enriched acoustic environment prevents this reorganization. This finding has implications for the treatment of hearing disorders, such as tinnitus, that have been linked to cortical tonotopic map reorganization.

Full article:
Enriched Acoustic Environment after Noise Trauma Reduces Hearing Loss and Prevents Cortical Map Reorganization

Just to recall an old thread that is talking about it:
Sound Therapy for Cats Prevents Tinnitus

 

He is not the first university academic to say that there won’t be a cure for a decade while skimming over and ignoring the work and trials which are currently being undertaken.

 

I think if he's referring to a "silver bullet" solution that completely resolves all forms then he is probably correct. But most tinnitus stems from NIHL, where there are multiple drugs in the works and dozens of companies working on this so I wouldn't be too worried.

 

I firmly believe that naysaying "doctors" should not have access to drugs like FX-322 or OTO-413 when they are released, the loss of potential income would be the proper slap in the face, for the slap in the face they give patients.

 

I think that is a fair summation of it. I also note that he happens to refer to work from Jastreboff which is interesting in the sense that a lot of his work has been questioned and dismissed in recent times.

 

I really can't wait for the day when all of these TRT people/supporters get put out of business by true medical researchers.

 

That would be sweet revenge. But then it would be a lot harder to find an ENT to administer it. I do agree that it's BS that the same people telling us it's psychosomatic today are going to be turning a handsome profit for drugs that physically cure it in a few years.