If you’re one of the 1 in 10 adults who experiences constant ringing in your ears, you already know how devastating tinnitus can be.
A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear has uncovered evidence that this phantom noise is generated by overactive nerves that the nervous system can no longer regulate.
The more widespread it is, tinnitus It has long remained a medical mystery, but now researchers have uncovered evidence that supports a leading theory about the origins of the perplexing topic.
Simple explanation for inexperienced people – per 10-15% Eight adults around the world hear a ringing, roaring, or buzzing sound in their ears, known as tinnitus. For some people, it comes and goes. For others, symptoms are persistent and considered chronic if they last more than three months.
Tinnitus is usually associated with some kind of ear disorder, such as noise exposure, hearing loss, injury, blockage, or infection. It may also affect people such as: Deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing impaired.
“In addition to the nuisance of constant tinnitus and other sounds, the symptoms of tinnitus can be debilitating for many sufferers, causing sleep deprivation, social isolation, anxiety, and depression, negatively impacting work performance, and It significantly reduces the quality of To tell Stéphane Maison, an auditory physiologist at Massachusetts Eye and Otolaryngology, was part of the research team.
So far, it is not fully understood why tinnitus occurs, but the main theory is that in the absence of the physical vibrations that produce sound, tinnitus occurs in the nerves that normally carry sound information to the brain. It’s a theory.
Proponents of this theory believe that this is the brain’s way of compensating for loss or lack of hearing. If you turn up the volume when little or no sound is coming in, the background noise of the internal speaker system will also be boosted to loud noise.
of new research We focused on tinnitus in people who can hear. They found that these subjects suffered from some degree of auditory nerve loss, which was undetectable by traditional hearing tests.
All 294 subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 72, had what would be considered “normal hearing” by conventional testing. Of this group, 29 had experienced continuous tinnitus for more than 6 months, and 64 had experienced continuous tinnitus for less than 6 months, or intermittent tinnitus after noise exposure. (for example, after attending a concert). The remaining one-third had never experienced tinnitus.
They found an association between chronic tinnitus and self-reported cochlear neurodegeneration (CND). The cochlear nerve can be damaged as a result of overexposure to sound or as part of normal aging, even if the sensory cells are intact.
The degree of tinnitus a person experienced was a strong predictor of cochlear nerve response. People with tinnitus tend to have weak muscle reflexes in their middle ear that protect their ears from loud low-frequency sounds, such as nightclub bass.They also had stronger ones olive cochlear reflexThis is useful for dealing with noise that is typically distributed over a wide section of the audible range.
The longer the tinnitus persists, the more pronounced these reactions become.according to researcherswhich suggests that “the persistence of tinnitus may depend on the degree of peripheral nerve damage.”
“Our study reconciles the idea that tinnitus can be caused by loss of the auditory nerve, including in people with normal hearing,” Maison said. To tell.
Conventional model rodent research They discovered that a family of proteins called neurotrophins can be used to encourage the auditory nerve to repair itself. The researchers of this new paper hope their findings will spur further research into this treatment for human use.
“Tinnitus cannot be treated until we fully understand the mechanisms underlying its development. This study is a first step toward our ultimate goal of stopping tinnitus.” To tell Maison.
“The idea that researchers might one day be able to restore lost sounds to the brain and perhaps reduce the brain’s hyperactivity, along with retraining, certainly brings hopes for a cure closer to reality. It is.”
This study scientific report.