MemberWe are going to allow everybody to have a vote, however, only donors' votes will count towards the final decision. We will do this by asking donors to post a comment, either here, or by PMing @Ed209 with their choice and the name they donated under. Once this is crossmatched with GoFundMe, that vote will count towards the final decision. So, if you want your vote to count and to have your say in this, please make a small donation and leave your username on the GoFundMe campaign page.
Once the poll has finished, we will have a general vote result and a donors' vote result. Donors can then decide if they want to take the general vote into account or not, or simply go with the result of the donors' vote which is the one that matters!
The descriptions below are in voting order:
So, there we have it, folks. These are the options we will be voting on, but before you vote, I'd advise doing a little research on each option. If for some reason the winning choice ultimately ends up being unimplementable, then we will default to the next most popular choice.
Once the poll has finished, we will have a general vote result and a donors' vote result. Donors can then decide if they want to take the general vote into account or not, or simply go with the result of the donors' vote which is the one that matters!
The descriptions below are in voting order:
- Dr Susan Shore leads a team who have invented a signal timing device that aims to reduce or eliminate tinnitus. Susan believes that tinnitus derives from the dorsal cochlear nucleus, where neurons called fusiform cells become hyperactive and synchronise with one another. She believes that some maladaptive plasticity occurs and that we begin to perceive tinnitus when this phantom signal is transferred to other areas of the brain. Her device uses earbuds and electrodes to disrupt this process, and it targets somatic tinnitus (according to Dr. Shore, approximately 2/3 of tinnitus sufferers belong to this group). https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/khri/susan-e-shore-phd
- Sonic Lab use a process they call Multimodal Synchronization Therapy, which is another way of disrupting abnormal brain activity. They believe it could be used to potentially treat various neurological or psychiatric disorders including tinnitus. mSync seeks to achieve noninvasive yet targeted neuromodulation by taking advantage of the dense and topographic interconnectivity of the nervous system in which the brain integrates information across auditory, visual, somatosensory, motor, cognitive, and limbic pathways. http://soniclab.umn.edu/research/neural-beamforming-tinnitus
- Another option is to invite organisations/researchers by putting out a call for them to submit their project ideas. We can look at these prospects based on merit and choose the applicant we like best. For more information on this, @David may be able to help.
- Prof Thanos Tzounopoulos also believes that tinnitus arises in the dorsal cochlear nucleus. Their work has shown that this is caused by a reduction in tiny channels called KCNQ channels, through which potassium ions travel in and out of the cell. He is developing novel compounds that will attempt to reduce this channel activity, and in return, reduce the perception of tinnitus. http://phrc.pitt.edu/people/thanos-tzounopoulos
- A member here, @kelpiemsp, proposed this idea: we could look at a scholarship for a student studying tinnitus. This would exempt the institution and the faculty. While research that pays a faculty professor is extremely expensive, many papers are actually researched and written by the graduate student and the faculty just reads it and puts their name as first author so it gets published. A 5,000 dollar scholarship to a student studying tinnitus would get quite a few applications worldwide and if we went this route, we could realistically request a paper.
- Dr Brian Allman of Schulich Medicine is another option. I'll post some information directly from his page: how does the brain adapt (or mal-adapt) when it is deprived one of its senses? My previous research using animal models has shown that partial hearing loss, which denies the auditory system the full spectrum of sounds normally accessible from the environment, causes a dramatic increase in the proportion of neurons in the auditory cortex that respond to visual and tactile stimuli. Future studies will determine the consequences of this "crossmodal plasticity" on auditory- and multisensory behavioral tasks. Ultimately, rehabilitative therapies aimed at restoring hearing may be complicated by factors involving such crossmodal plasticity. Using electrophysiological recordings in a rodent model, my ongoing research seeks to determine how aberrant cortical plasticity contributes to tinnitus. Additional studies are devoted to identifying risk factors that may increase one's susceptibility to developing chronic tinnitus following loud noise exposure. https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/anatomy/people/bios/faculty/allman_brian.html
- Another member proposed that we invest in developing better diagnostics. The way to do this has not been proposed yet, so if this is the most popular choice, we would have to discuss how.
- Prof Josef Rauschecker is another possibility. Again, I'll post information about his work directly from him: Dr. Rauschecker's research interests are functional organization and plasticity in the central nervous system. His research aims to explicate the brain's means of implementation for auditory perception and language. His laboratory is one of only a handful in the country engaged in the neurophysiology of auditory cortex in nonhuman primates. In parallel studies, he is using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans for the study of the neural bases of language, music and other higher auditory processing. This work should lead to a deeper understanding of brain function in autism, dyslexia, aphasia, agnosia and tinnitus, and more intelligently designed hearing aids and neural prostheses. In this context his laboratory is also interested in the effects of sensory deprivation during brain development, relating to the question of how the brain of individuals with early blindness or deafness gets reorganized. These studies of brain plasticity have relevance for the understanding of degenerative diseases of the brain, such as Alzheimer's disease. https://linc.georgetown.edu/josef-rauschecker
- Hough Ear Institute was proposed by @Contrast. Here is the overview from their site: At Hough Ear Institute (HEI), our mission is to restore hearing worldwide through research, teaching and humanitarian efforts. Our researchers focus on sensorineural hearing loss, exploring its causes, prevention methods, reversing its damage, and ultimately restoring natural hearing in the inner ear. http://houghear.org/support-hei/
- Hearing Health Foundation was also proposed by contrast. Interestingly, if we raised more money they offer this option: HHF's special "Named Research Grants" Program enables donors to fund a research project and name the grant in their name or in honor or memory of a loved one.For a minimum gift of $30,000, you can create your HHF named research grant and help choose the research topic to be investigated. https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/donate
- Neuromod is another option, and interestingly, Berthold Langguth - a speaker at the Tinnitus Expo - is an advisor. They have also developed a bi-modal neuromodulation device. Here's some information from their site: Neuromod has developed and patented a bi-modal neuromodulation technology that it is evaluating for neurological disorders including chronic tinnitus, a condition affecting 10% of the adult population and commonly known as 'ringing in the ears'. https://www.neuromoddevices.com
So, there we have it, folks. These are the options we will be voting on, but before you vote, I'd advise doing a little research on each option. If for some reason the winning choice ultimately ends up being unimplementable, then we will default to the next most popular choice.
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