Using Extracochlear Multichannel Electrical Stimulation to Relieve Tinnitus

Using Extracochlear Multichannel Electrical Stimulation to Relieve Tinnitus and Reverse Tinnitus-Related Auditory-Somatosensory Plasticity in the Cochlear Nucleus

Objectives
Tinnitus has no reliable cure but may be significantly relieved by the usage of cochlear implants. However, not all tinnitus patients necessitate cochlear implantation that can impair hearing. This study was to investigate whether a novel extracochlear electrical stimulation (EES) strategy could relieve tinnitus of guinea pigs without hearing impairment, and the roles of auditory-somatosensory plasticity in the cochlear nucleus in the tinnitus relief.

Materials and Methods
We used a novel four-electrode extracochlear implant to electrically stimulate the cochlea of tinnitus guinea pigs. Tinnitus was assessed by the gap-prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex (GPIAS) ratios and the tinnitus index. The plasticity of auditory and somatosensory innervation in the different subdivisions of cochlear nucleus was evaluated by immunostaining of vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1) and VGLUT2, respectively.

Results
The EES induced significant decreases of GPIAS ratios and the tinnitus index of tinnitus guinea pigs, indicating reductions of tinnitus behavioral manifestations. Meanwhile, the EES reversed the abnormal auditory-somatosensory innervation in the cochlear nucleus of tinnitus animals but did not change the hearing and the numbers of inner hair cell synapses.

Conclusions
This study demonstrated that the novel EES strategy could effectively relieve tinnitus without impairment to hearing and cochlear structure of tinnitus animals. The reversal of tinnitus-related auditory-somatosensory plasticity in the cochlear nucleus was correlated with the tinnitus relief induced by the EES.​

Next steps Phase 1 and 2. More and more treatment routes are popping up everyday. I'm confident it is not a matter of decades but a matter of years until we get out of this trouble.

 

It's really encouraging to see all these new papers and techniques popping up almost every day! The problem is that no one seems to get it a step further. There is a lot of research over the years about herbs, drugs, simulation methods etc etc, that they conclude "this method relieves tinnitus symptoms", but ok... what's next?

 

If something works for animals, it doesn’t mean it works for humans. This is the problem.

I don’t know about apes, but mice trials fail in humans every time.

 

It works and yes, it is being trialed in humans. This was featured on a recent Tinnitus Talk Podcast. Dr. Hamid Djalilian, University of California, Irvine.

Tinnitus Treatment Using Noninvasive and Minimally Invasive Electric Stimulation: Experimental Design and Feasibility

 

They are already doing this study in humans though.

 

For anyone who's missed it, here's the podcast episode that features this discussion. I gave the episode a pass at first as I find accounts of tinnitus sufferers very distressing (and I'm in a rough patch with my T and H myself now). But if you want to hear Hamid Djalilian describe his research in more conversational terms, it might be worth a listen.

I wonder what exactly is novel about this new study, as it seems to use the same overall approach as Dr. Djalilian. They even cite Dr. Djalilian's study, so I imagine the answer to my question is somewhere in there, but I don't have access to the full study...

 

I think part of the reason they don't develop further is lack of funding. If the government were to take a determined, pragmatic approach to finding a treatment or cure, where limitations or financial roadblocks weren’t our adversaries, we'd have one pretty quickly, I think, especially considering all the optimistic results we see in various studies that pop-up. But they often sit in limbo and don’t develop further.

It’s like trying to make a Hollywood movie without the backing of a major studio. It can be written, casted, and you can start shooting the scenes, but if funding dries up halfway through, you’re going to be shelving it. Without the studio to back it, the movie isn’t going to be made or ever released.

A lot of these pioneers who want to cure tinnitus and hyperacusis are like artists who dream of making their mark, but without a big studio to back them. They may have the best movie or song ever written in their hands, but it ain’t going nowhere without that studio. It’s all about priorities and tinnitus/hyperacusis are not high enough on the list for the government, unfortunately. Given that there are no great treatments for either, it should be the opposite. Many other illnesses or disorders have at least something to work with.