The Duality of Tinnitus Research

The way I see it, there are two ways we can approach preventing and curing tinnitus:

1. Be the brain's friend (the way medical science embraces)

2. Be the brain's enemy

I'm going to argue for the latter. Most modern tinnitus research focuses on brain regions associated with noise generation and the so-called "breaking down of the brain's annoyance gatekeeper" the limbic system. A recent article did a meta analysis of many studies analyzing grey matter reduction in regards to tinnitus and found inconsistencies in terms of the degree to which neurons are lost. In short, it is believed that areas like the limbic system are affected, but it is unknown to what degree grey matter is lost/areas shrink, etc.

Given that something has to go wrong for the brain to attempt to "regain" the ability to hear by cranking up the volume, the obvious solution it to find where this frequency tuning occurs and silence it from happening. The brain despises gaps in areas of critical function, so it desperately tries to keep the frequency complete. In order to achieve a "cure", we need to find ways to basically recreate the gap by turning the volume back down and then destroying the volume knob so the brain cannot correct it.

In short, the brain is left with an unwanted gap in a function critical to survival but is denied any means of compensating for its loss. Sadly, science wants to leave this function intact and try to convince the brain to quiet (not silence) the noise to make life more enjoyable. Josef Ruaschecker mistakenly believe that boosting mood enhancing neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine can repair the broken limbic system in the brain. This is generally an incorrect finding as mood enhancing drugs often fail to fix the problem (as in silence and NOT lessen perception).

It is high time we stop trying to act like being the brain's friend and trying to trick it into silencing this noise it itself created because it dislikes gaps is a good way to address this disease. Tinnitus itself is a condition and NOT just a symptom as many academics who do not have the condition wrongly claim. If I research tinnitus, my goal will be to be the brain's enemy. To get in its way and stop it from being able to turn up the frequency volume, stop grey matter loss with noise generation, and force the gap to remain. I want to find the volume button, reset it to where the gap is hearing is unfilled, then destroy it so the brain cannot correct it. It will also look to see if the brain tries to circumvent the broken knob by creating new connections to recreate the noise so we can stop that to.

Only be antagonizing and preventing the brain from functioning normally will we finally experience silence again. And no, being in a silent room and hearing the tinnitus is NOT silence.