The Blind Also Have Phantom Signals

I was listening to a program called TED TALKS, topic was "Brain".

Speaker was a neuroscientist explaining that some people who have gone totally blind actually see scenes like flowers, people, and the most common is cartoons.

He stated that the optical nerves were looking for a visual signal to process from the eyes and when there is none the brain compensates and creates these phantom visual images in the brain. Of course he went on to say there is nothing they can do, but he did reassure a blind person he was treating that she was not going crazy.

To me this is pretty much like tinnitus, the brain is looking for natural sound from the ear. Same with the amputee still feeling sensation in a limb that is no longer there.

 

i think its really interesting.
but to be honest i dont think tinnitus only happens when there is a hearing loss.
i think its a symptom of nerve damage.
there is people with menieres (viral cause)
who has loud tinnitus and after a few months of anti virals
all their symptons (including tinnitus) goes away

 

Yes, I've read the streaks and flashes of light in all sorts of colours are all possible in the blind.

 

I also believe this is what happens..
except ours isn't just a flash or an itch it's constant.

 

No I would agree with Mario, I believe it's damaged/pissed off nerves that's responsible for T especially in the cases of noise induced T.

If the brain was creating phantom signals then explain why people with somatic T can increase/decrease their T by moving their jaw or by putting pressure on it?Some can even make their T go away completely by doing this so if it was the brain sending a signal back to the ear surely this wouldn't have an affect on it but it does.
Some people say it's the brain making up for the lack of input from the ear and as such enhances the gain in the somatic nervous system but I don't believe this either with good reason and it has to do with lidocaine.

Many people report either a reduction or complete cessation of T and H symptoms after receiving Lidocaine for various reasons, mainly dental work but some have gone as far as intratympanic injections with various success.

Lidocaine blocks nerves hence why your face slopes to the side like a stroke victim after getting a few hits of it at the dentist, if lack of input causes T surely lidocaine would increase T after intratympanic injections as it's no longer receiving the input it was before as the nerves have been temporarily"numbed"which in turn would trick the brain into thinking there's less input.

But the opposite happens and that suggests to me that damaged nerves are no longer sending the distress or damaged signal to the brain hence why people's T disappears after lidocaine injections.When your tooth hurts notice how the pain completely disappears after numbing, that's because the nerves responsible for that pain signal have been blocked and now the brain doesn't receive information from it anymore albeit temporarily.

If this can have the same effect on T that to me shows it's nerve based, if blocking nerves can stop T then it's not in the brain as if it were a nerve block would do absolutely nothing whatsoever, a nerve block doesn't reduce brain activity it reduces nerve activity and that to me at least is considerable proof of T and H's origins.

On a side note I love/hate going to the dentist, reason being is its loud as hell but I get numbing injections which usually turns my T completely off depending on which side she injects.Once the numbing wears off back comes T.

 

That is a good point. I have heard about the lidocaine helping. Although it's not a permanant solution.
But say we did cut the nerve off completely to the brain. Would we experience phantom sounds similar to if not worse than T?