Mechanism of Tinnitus? Maybe We Should Know More

[Leqi]

Apologies if there are grammar mistakes, as a Chinese speaker, English is my third language.

I developed my T after a neomycin ear drop treatment with a ear drum perforation. Neomycin - the most ototoxic one in aminoglycosides group. A stupid decision from my GP in New Zealand, led to a life time agony.

My T induced by antibiotic side effect is catastrophic. Absolutely catastrophic.. I hear my T over everything..There is always several different noises- an ultra high pitched hissing, an unmaskable jet engine buzzing, a loud screaming, feels like my neighbor is sawing steel, all day, every day.

Like everyone here, I pray for a cure, hoping it is coming to us soon in future.

Human have been on the moon decades ago, but our we still know absolutely very little about tinnitus and we have not done enough. The mechanism still remains very unclear.

It has been understood that when hair cells are damaged/dead, they constantly make a "false signal" and fire to our auditory nerve, although some researchers think it might be much deeper in our brain, I personal believe this "signal firing" theory is correct as we already understand that aminoglycosides damage these hair cells, same as what loud noise does. So I believe for most of us, that is the case, it will be something to do with these tiny weak cells.

Tinnitus always comes with hearing loss, I agree with that although I only have very minor high frequency hearing drop down, but if you think about it the other way round, there are some people have hearing loss but they do not experience tinnitus at all, some people are totally deaf, to our understandings, they should experience very severe T, as all the cells in all hearing frequency range are firing the signal, but the fact is they don't experience the ringing of all frequencies. I can't imagine how it would be if a fully deaf man hear noises of all frequencies.

So apparently, some cell damages appear as tinnitus but some damages only cause hearing loss without firing the annoy signal.

Researchers have been trying to find a way to block the signal on the "highway", but I wonder if its possible for us to understand why and how these cells are firing the signals, the difference between the cells actively firing signal and the ones just die quietly, if we can understand the difference that lead to these two results, maybe we can do a lot more. Maybe only the injured ones fire the signals but the totally dead ones don't? We do not know yet.

We should know more about tinnitus mechanism instead of finding the key in a dark room. And hopefully, we will.

 

[Alue]

Tinnitus most likely arises from an inappropriate brain response to a loss of auditory input. Once this happens, even if the "false signals" stop tinnitus doesn't necessarily go away.

More than likely it is an overactive auditory cortex that is producing the tinnitus sound than hair cells constantly firing.

Think of it this way, there is damage to either the hair cells or nerve fibers causing a loss of input to the brain, instead of moving on the brain overreacts and starts producing a sound to fill in that gap, over time this gets hardwired in the brain and it becomes permanent, the new 'silence'.

 

[Leqi]

Tinnitus most likely arises from an inappropriate brain response to a loss of auditory input. Once this happens, even if the "false signals" stop tinnitus doesn't necessarily go away.

More than likely it is an overactive auditory cortex that is producing the tinnitus sound than hair cells constantly firing.

Think of it this way, there is damage to either the hair cells or nerve fibers causing a loss of input to the brain, instead of moving on the brain overreacts and starts producing a sound to fill in that gap, over time this gets hardwired in the brain and it becomes permanent, the new 'silence'.

Good points.
But I still wonder why some people have hearing loss or complete deafness but no T or minor T

 

[Path Maker]

Good points.
But I still wonder why some people have hearing loss or complete deafness but no T or minor T

@Leqi I'm not sure where to access the links right now, but I have read some recent studies that indicate that the brain structure of people who are prone to developing tinnitus is different from the brain structure of those who don't develop it. Sort of a predisposition to getting it, and when the trigger event occurs, that's why some people develop it and some don't.

 

[Alue]

Good points.
But I still wonder why some people have hearing loss or complete deafness but no T or minor T

That fits in with the abnormal brain reaction theory. That normally the brain should see a loss of auditory input, then let it go and not start producing a sound. Tinnitus is like phantom limb pain.

 

[Jkph75]

I think that almost all people have some degree of loss, especially as they age. By loss, I am referring to what people on this site consider loss and that would be anything less than absolutely perfect hearing in each and every frequency. It seems to me that one thing that we as T sufferers seem to share in common for the most part is an overwhelming amount of anxiety. I think that the more predominant reason for our T is related to our anxiety and the way that it affects our brain's ability process what is important information and what isn't.

 

[Robert44]

I work with someone who wears hearing aids and has significant hearing loss. He doesn't have T. I always wondered why he doesn't have it.

 

[Leqi]

I work with someone who wears hearing aids and has significant hearing loss. He doesn't have T. I always wondered why he doesn't have it.

It would be a very interesting topic I think. If researchers can figure that out, T could possibly be cured or maybe turned into hearing loss which wouldn't bother us this much.

 

[Owen]

My tinnitus comes and goes. Not as in gets louder and quieter, or I forget to listen to it for a bit - it actually vanishes. I can be in a room that is as silent as anyone would normally encounter and turn my attention to it 100% and I cannot find it. Then, on other occasions, I can be totally distracted, relaxed, calm and happy and bang, in it comes. This happens several times throughout the day.

No eNT or doctor of any kind is that interested in this, even though it is considered reasonably rare - who knows, maybe imaging of my brain when it is present versus when it is not would show areas that are active at times and not at others. This could be useful information to help millions of people.

The average doctor just isn't interested enough to try and understand it, let alone fix it.