Karl
in response to your post at 10:21 above...yes the left and right side are interconnected and the brain uses this to determine spacial information about the sound sources and more
but whether or not the interconnectedness figures in to tinnitus...i just dont have a model for that
BUT as is pointed out in your diagram, there are afferent an efferent hair cells and that is most interesting
the brain takes signals from in inner hair cells and feeds signals back to the ear to the outer hair cells...an efferent signal which means in a sense the dorsal cochlear nucleus, and / or the superior olivary complex and/or or the auditory cortex are SENDING SOUND SIGNALS BACK INTO THE EAR !!!
many years ago i happened upon the notion that tinnitus might be a result ...not of just any hearing hair cell destruction ...but specifically, and only, the destruction that damages all outer hair cells for a frequency where some or many of the inner hair cells are left in tact ! !
think of it...the outer hair cells, efferent cells, are there to amplify very weak signals...the brain gets a signal from the inner cell, its weak and so that signal is fed back to the outer cells, amplified, enough to boost inner hair cell sensory input
but there are no outer cells for that frequency, they all have been destroyed, so the brain boosts the signal more and more trying desperately to get feed-back
now i know that the theory that the brain is turning up the listening potential to "hear" sounds where damage has taken place, is an old theory, and is sometimes related to phantom limb syndrome, and this theory has been around forever
but what im proposing here is a little different
what im proposing is that where inner and outer hair cells for a particular frequency are destroyed totally, together, im guessing there would be no tinnitus sensation for this part of the hearing frequency spectrum
and that it is only where there are inner cells without outer ( or i could construct an alternative tinnitus model where there are no inner cells but outer cells remain) that we get the sensation of tinnitus
im wondering if all the rest of the brain scan activity and messed up processing that is being seen in the different parts of the brain auditory complex are the RESULTS of tinnitus, not the CAUSE
and that tinnitus occurs where there is a mis match between inner and outer stereo cilia (damaged hearing hair cells)
this is not to say that DR Daltons use of sound (or other related programs that use vagus nerve stimulation with sound) cant or wont work... not at all...im hopeful it CAN work cause the brain is plastic and can be re programmed...i just have a feeling that these treatments are quite different from "cures" ..but maybe that distinction is not important
we of course all want to see success in what ever form it may take
best wishes
mt
btw as i write this my ears are ringing OFF THE HOOK...yikes