MuteButton

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it can lower my tinnitus, I would be more than happy. I just hope I will not describe this attenuation as a 2% decrease, that's all
I think most of us would be delighted with 50% decrease in volume in the hope that overtime the brain starts to enjoy chilling out a bit more and sorts the rest out for us. Or Shore comes over the hill with the big guns.

Or some really clever person just juices our ears and sorts this out once and for all and rightly reaps the rewards in gold bullion and rescued human souls.
 
I think most of us would be delighted with 50% decrease in volume in the hope that overtime the brain starts to enjoy chilling out a bit more and sorts the rest out for us.
Based on Dr Shore's data, that's a reasonable expectation. There was a roughly 10 dB mean reduction of tinnitus and sound perception halves/doubles for every 10 dB decrease/increase. (Sound ENERGY halves/doubles every 3 dB but for some reason perception is a bit less sensitive.)

So a 10dB reduction in tinnitus volume means a perceived halving of it, which would be game-changingly awesome.
 
Based on Dr Shore's data, that's a reasonable expectation. There was a roughly 10 dB mean reduction of tinnitus and sound perception halves/doubles for every 10 dB decrease/increase. (Sound ENERGY halves/doubles every 3 dB but for some reason perception is a bit less sensitive.)

So a 10dB reduction in tinnitus volume means a perceived halving of it, which would be game-changingly awesome.
I believe the reduction during treatment was more like 8 dB (assuming we are talking about the 2018 paper and not something more recent - I haven't followed this closely), but that isn't the actual treatment effect. To find that you have to subtract off the effect of the sham treatment. The difference is the effect of the treatment itself - above and beyond the sham. That's about 4.5 dB. See here for more discussion: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-university-of-michigan-tinnitus-discovery-—-signal-timing.2805/page-8#post-299011
 
I believe the reduction during treatment was more like 8 dB (assuming we are talking about the 2018 paper and not something more recent - I haven't followed this closely), but that isn't the actual treatment effect. To find that you have to subtract off the effect of the sham treatment. The difference is the effect of the treatment itself - above and beyond the sham. That's about 4.5 dB. See here for more discussion: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-university-of-michigan-tinnitus-discovery-—-signal-timing.2805/page-8#post-299011
The Tinnitus Talk God has returned!!

@Aaron123,
What are your thoughts on the Neuromod device? Have you followed it or bimodal neuromodulation? Have you watched the Q&A video?

If anybody doesn't know, Aaron's knowledge on tinnitus research is spot on. He is up there with Hubert Lim.

Seriously though Aaron you have been missed. Please get involved in the discussion. I would really like to know your thoughts on Neuromod and bimodal neuromodulation.
 
He is the spitting image of a Rock God as well :rockingbanana:
Yeah man - David Bowie was a legend, but just letting newbies know Aaron123 is by far the most knowledgeable member I have ever come across on Tinnitus Talk. I at least highly respect him and I've been posting for a while off and on.

If he starts posting regularly again, it'll be interesting to read his posts, especially regarding Neuromod and bimodal neuromodulation as excitement and anxiety is running high on Tinnitus Talk lately surrounding this topic...

(Taking the mick about the David Bowie comment btw haha)
 
Yeah man - David Bowie was a legend, but just letting newbies know Aaron123 is by far the most knowledgeable member I have ever came across on Tinnitus Talk. I at least highly respect him and I've been posting for a while off and on.

If he starts posting regularly again, it'll be interesting to read his posts, especially regarding Neuromod and bimodal neuromodulation as excitement and anxiety is running high on Tinnitus Talk lately surrounding this topic...

(Taking the mick about the David Bowie comment btw haha)
LOL. It's Ian Curtis of Joy Division;). My idol.

Agree about Aaron.
 
Just thinking over the numbers: if Dr. O'Neill said that around 66% received a clinically significant improvement, doesn't that mean that they improved by at least 13 points on the TFI scale? That's the marker of clinical significance. If that's the case, it's a pretty strong result and in line with Michigan. For comparison, the original Michigan study reported average reductions in TFI in the active treatment and active washout phases are 7.51 and 6.71 points, respectively. It depends on how the study defines non-responders without a placebo. Is a patient still "responsive" if her reported improvement was the same as the sham treatment?

Here are ranges put out by Henry et al. for frame of reference:
  • Mean score of 14 (range 0-17) not a problem.
  • Mean score of 21 (range 18-31) small problem.
  • Mean score of42 (range 32-53) moderate problem.
  • Mean score of 65 (range 54-72) big problem.
  • Mean score of 78 (range 73-100) very big problem
 
It's Ian Curtis of Joy Division;). My idol.
I would have loved to see them live. Wrong continent and a little too young though... Would also love to know what their next album would have been like.

Sorry off topic. I have a few thoughts on MuteButton which I will try to get organized and posted. I have now been distracted by JD...
 
I believe the reduction during treatment was more like 8 dB (assuming we are talking about the 2018 paper and not something more recent - I haven't followed this closely), but that isn't the actual treatment effect. To find that you have to subtract off the effect of the sham treatment. The difference is the effect of the treatment itself - above and beyond the sham. That's about 4.5 dB. See here for more discussion: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-university-of-michigan-tinnitus-discovery-—-signal-timing.2805/page-8#post-299011
I'm a bit confused here. I have looked at the 2018 study again and this is what it says:

"The active bimodal treatment produced a significant (P < 0.05) cumulative decrease in tinnitus loudness assessed by TinnTester loudness matching each week of the active treatment. [...] In contrast, loudness was stable (unchanged) during sham treatment for both groups. [...] Pooled groups showed a mean decrease of 8.035 ±1.33 dB from a baseline of 54.42 ± 13.3 dB in loudness matches during the 4 weeks of active treatment [...], significantly larger than the changes seen in the other conditions (sham, active washout, and sham washout) where changes from baseline were not significant (Fig. 6B). [...] Tinnitus reduction reached an average of 12.2 dB in the fourth week of active treatment." (Emphasis mine.)​

So the text appears to say that the sham treatment's effect on loudness is negligible. But the figure (Figure 6B in the study - as you point out in your own post) appears to show that there was roughly 3.5dB reduction during the sham period (reduced to 1dB during sham washout). I'm not sure how to resolve this.

Also, looking forward to your thoughts on Neuromod. :)
 
Might the bimodal stimulation, especially Neuromod's, also help Morse Code tinnitus or intermittent tinnitus? Are there any exclusion criteria?

I mean after all tinnitus is defined as a noise without external source, and can be constant or intermittent, high pitch or low pitch, clicking, buzzing, hissing etc.
 
Might the bimodal stimulation, especially Neuromod's, also help Morse Code tinnitus or intermittent tinnitus? Are there any exclusion criteria?

I mean after all tinnitus is defined as a noise without external source, and can be constant or intermittent, high pitch or low pitch, clicking, buzzing, hissing etc.
They have mentioned several times that their treatment doesn't care about of the character of the tinnitus signal.
  • It doesn't matter if it's tonal, Morse code, hissing, screaming, beeping etc.
  • It also doesn't matter if you have one tone or more.
  • It also doesn't matter if it's one-sided or bilateral.
 
Might the bimodal stimulation, especially Neuromod's, also help Morse Code tinnitus or intermittent tinnitus? Are there any exclusion criteria?
The CEO of Neuromod said in the interview "[...] the tonality, atonality, pitch of tinnitus is not relevant to the therapy" (question 12)
 
Yes. Ross O'Neill said it's not been created for the treatment of somatic (TMJ) or pulsatile tinnitus in mind. He referred to this as "mechanical tinnitus" in the Q&A video.
 
Yes. Ross O'Neill said it's not been created for the treatment of somatic (TMJ) or pulsatile tinnitus in mind. He referred to this as "mechanical tinnitus" in the Q&A video.
No that is not at all what he means. He means simply that, it was not designed to target it. Likely because it isn't any different as far as the brain is concerned. Bi-Modal stimulation works best on people with "mechanical" or "somatic" tinnitus, because it uses the same pathway.
 
Yes. Ross O'Neill said it's not been created for the treatment of somatic (TMJ) or pulsatile tinnitus in mind. He referred to this as "mechanical tinnitus" in the Q&A video.
This keeps getting mixed up. I think we need a change in the terminology. Flexing your jaw or other movements is called somatic tinnitus, and it is not considered a mechanical form of tinnitus. Over 80% of people can modulate their tinnitus with movements.

Somatic tinnitus makes no difference. I can't STRESS THIS ENOUGH.

TMJ (where your tinnitus is drastically altered and created by jaw movements) and Pulsatile Tinnitus are mechanical.

Try to understand that when you can modulate your tinnitus it only means that you're activating those parts of the somatic nerve creating more neural activity.

Please everyone, stop saying this won't work for somatic tinnitus.

Somatic.PNG
 
When Neuromod releases the device - the third party (audiologist presumably) will determine if this treatment is right for you (as mentioned by Neuromod with correspondence.)

What I can take from this (speculation) is that they've determined who it may work best for and who not. They did already state that there is no evidence of tonality/atonality/laterality/centrality making a difference, which may be good for those wondering if it only helps ear tinnitus vs head tinnitus as well as those concerned with tonal vs atonal tinnitus.

I'm just curious though what other factors may be included in determining if it's right for you or if it's just objective / pulsatile tinnitus that is being excluded. If that's the case then one could assume if you have subjective tinnitus then it's going to get recommended a lot regardless of many factors. Beats the ACRN therapy where it was a strict criteria for having tonal tinnitus <10 kHz.

I'm curious if the cause of your tinnitus makes a difference for being recommended for Neuromod therapy.

Ross O'Neill states they believed tinnitus to be from hearing loss, but some people have no measurable hearing loss on an audiogram and would be deemed as having normal hearing by audiologists. Would that mean they won't recommend it?
 
Please everyone, stop saying this won't work for somatic tinnitus.

View attachment 27755
It's a really weird thing for people to say when not having somatic tinnitus was an exclusion criteria for the first University of Michigan study. That literally screams "this technology has been designed for people who can modulate their tinnitus with muscle movements". There is a reason for that. The whole way this thing is supposed to work, is predicated on the idea that tinnitus arises when the dorsal cochlear nucleus starts to interpret data from touch-sensing neurons as sound.

If anything, people should be wary about this not working well for people who cannot modulate their tinnitus somatically.

It worked on me, and my tinnitus is somatic as hell. When I eat a bagel, my head sounds like a million cicadas being burned to death with a flamethrower.
 
Ross O'Neill states they believed tinnitus to be from hearing loss, but some people have no measurable hearing loss on an audiogram and would be deemed as having normal hearing by audiologists. Would that mean they won't recommend it?
Did those audiograms go all the way up to 16-18 kHz? They usually don't, and if they don't, they're literally worthless for determining if someone has "any loss" (loss starts in the upper ranges; the damage that causes my tinnitus is around 14 kHz).

Beyond that, there are all kinds of "hearing loss" besides threshold loss, if you google "hidden hearing loss" and "auditory ribbon fiber" you will find more info.
 
Based on Dr Shore's data, that's a reasonable expectation. There was a roughly 10 dB mean reduction of tinnitus and sound perception halves/doubles for every 10 dB decrease/increase. (Sound ENERGY halves/doubles every 3 dB but for some reason perception is a bit less sensitive.)

So a 10dB reduction in tinnitus volume means a perceived halving of it, which would be game-changingly awesome.
This probably roughly correlates to my own experience with it. It was never gone, but it stopped interfering with music in headphones at very very low volumes. Generally I cannot tolerate headphones well at all.
 
It's a really weird thing for people to say when not having somatic tinnitus was an exclusion criteria for the first University of Michigan study. That literally screams "this technology has been designed for people who can modulate their tinnitus with muscle movements". There is a reason for that. The whole way this thing is supposed to work, is predicated on the idea that tinnitus arises when the dorsal cochlear nucleus starts to interpret data from touch-sensing neurons as sound.

If anything, people should be wary about this not working well for people who cannot modulate their tinnitus somatically.

It worked on me, and my tinnitus is somatic as hell. When I eat a bagel, my head sounds like a million cicadas being burned to death with a flamethrower.
Having to have somatic or not somatic tinnitus was not part of their inclusion or exclusion criteria as far as I recall. I will have to double check that.

They haven't mentioned of having to have a somatic element of your tinnitus for it to work.

I hope it doesn't matter. Even when my tinnitus was severe I can't remember being able to modulate it. The only thing that changes it is when I do a really big yawn it goes up in volume. That's it. No other way to modulate it.
 
I hope it doesn't matter. Even when my tinnitus was severe I can't remember being able to modulate it. The only thing that changes it is when I do a really big yawn it goes up in volume. That's it. No other way to modulate it.
That's literally what I'm describing and I believe based on that, UMich would have considered you a fine candidate. Hopefully that's reassuring!

Some people have more extreme somatic involvement than others, or more involvement of muscles that can be moved voluntarily than others.
 
Tinnitus is so weird. I can modulate mine by opening my mouth, pushing on my teeth/jaw (either upper or lower) or by certain neck movements. I have looked into TMJ, but I have no pain or bruxism either. My neck isn't the best I guess, but I have no pain there either. Everything points to hearing loss. It is strange how some have somatic symptoms and others don't. Either way I don't think it is going to matter if you have somatic tinnitus or non somatic as long as it is hearing loss related and not due to TMJ or neck issues.

Now if we would just get an update that would be another story.:mad:
 
When Neuromod releases the device - the third party (audiologist presumably) will determine if this treatment is right for you (as mentioned by Neuromod with correspondence.)

What I can take from this (speculation) is that they've determined who it may work best for and who not. They did already state that there is no evidence of tonality/atonality/laterality/centrality making a difference, which may be good for those wondering if it only helps ear tinnitus vs head tinnitus as well as those concerned with tonal vs atonal tinnitus.

I'm just curious though what other factors may be included in determining if it's right for you or if it's just objective / pulsatile tinnitus that is being excluded. If that's the case then one could assume if you have subjective tinnitus then it's going to get recommended a lot regardless of many factors. Beats the ACRN therapy where it was a strict criteria for having tonal tinnitus <10 kHz.

I'm curious if the cause of your tinnitus makes a difference for being recommended for Neuromod therapy.

Ross O'Neill states they believed tinnitus to be from hearing loss, but some people have no measurable hearing loss on an audiogram and would be deemed as having normal hearing by audiologists. Would that mean they won't recommend it?
I thought that Claire "the Irish miracle" had her tinnitus disappear with the MuteButton trial even though she claimed to have no measurable hearing loss.
 
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