Machine Learning Algorithm That Detects Tinnitus Based on EEG Measures and Cognitive Performance

Cortical auditory evoked potentials, brain signal variability and cognition as biomarkers to detect the presence of chronic tinnitus (Cardon et al, 2022)

One of the researchers has recently published an article on this particular subject in a popular science magazine (EOS Wetenschap, Belgium). I think it's easier to comprehend than the original science paper.

Tinnitus caught in the brain (Cardon, 2022)

 

A difficult read. Where was this study done? Is it the same/similar to the research at the Bionics Institute?

 

I also read it today! Though it does not yet point to a solution, did I understand that right?

 

The study was conducted in Belgium.



I think that the Belgium study differs from the Bionics Institute in terms of recording information/data.

The Bionics Institute is using a special kind of imaging technology (functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy) in the brain cap that measures blood oxygen levels when a patient is exposed to sound.

Cardon and her colleagues at the University of Antwerp have used a certain kind of EEG instrument (Micromed™ SD LTM 64 Express system) that measures electrical activity in the brain when a patient is exposed to sound by using small electrodes attached to the scalp.

 

One day ‘machine learning algorithms’ will solve tinnitus.

I got excited when I saw the title.

 

Cool. Hopefully it won't take 200,000,000 years I just know there's something going on up in our brains. We just have to find a way to discover it. And please for the love of god let our brain have a mechanism switch that we can turn the tinnitus on & off.

Seriously, how in the world wasn't this nobody's objective until recently, meaning why did all these researchers and scientists, who were formulating cures for tinnitus, not think about creating ways to map tinnitus out?

I just had an EKG and was wishing they had something like that for the brain to detect tinnitus.

Hopefully with the way things are moving, it won't be long. All we need is Dr. Susan Shore or someone to make something that can at least diminish our tinnitus perception enough to where it doesn't bother us, then wait for things like this to come into reality.

 

I have many medical "issues" and tinnitus is just one of them. I have lots of problems sleeping (can you guess why?) and went to have a sleep study done about two years ago. For those that don't know, you stay overnight at the study location, they hook up a TON of wires to you to monitor your brain and body during sleep.

At the time, my tinnitus wasn't my primary concern. However, after getting the results, I'm wondering how much it plays a part in it or if my results could somehow be used to measure it.

My doctor told me afterwards that I sleep a lot... but little of it is REM/deep sleep. I was coming out of that sleep 40+ times an hour, in addition to grinding my teeth and the apnea, etc, etc, etc. His words to me were "you know that your anxiety is ruining your life while you're awake. You now have proof that it's doing the same while you sleep."

I really do wonder how much the tinnitus is playing a role in my inability to sleep properly.

I don't mean to hijack this thread. ust adding my 2 cents...

 

Ey @transient18, I think it's part of the solution, as it may help researchers to assess measurable differences in patients with tinnitus who have received treatment X vs. those who haven't received it by analysing electrical activity in parts of the brain that are involved in the manifestation of this horrible affliction.

 

Btw, the main author of this research is a Belgian PhD student and finalist in the Belgian PhD Cup. I hope she wins, it would bring quite some attention to tinnitus here.

 

She finished second.

 

It's very, very good news, right?

 

I’ve noticed that tinnitus appears to be quite a talked-about subject in Belgium. Many young music artists from there (Angèle, Roméo Elvis, Veence Hanao) have been very vocal about their struggles with tinnitus and hyperacusis.

 

Which one of those have hyperacusis?

 

Veence Hanao is the artist struggling with hyperacusis. Here's a text he wrote about it in French: https://www.oreille-malade.com/grou.../temoignage-musicien-acouphenes-hyperacousie/

 

Yeah definitely!

I wish more artists would talk about this and raise awareness.

 

This video talks more about her research and how exactly they can detect tinnitus in our brain.

Detecting tinnitus in the brain: an interview...

 

A small study out of China comparing EEG findings in tinnitus patients versus healthy controls.

Difficult read. Small population. Not much learned really. Feeds into the thalamocortical dysrhythmia model.

EEG signal classification of tinnitus based on SVM and sample entropy