New University of Michigan Tinnitus Discovery — Signal Timing

[Nick47]

it's reasonable to hypothesize that those with tinnitus and more extensive damage may not experience improvement or may have other factors that make them less likely to respond to treatment.

This is true. I have normal hearing in my left ear and severe-to-profound high-frequency hearing loss in my right ear. However, she says tinnitus is in the brain, so who knows. Mine is highly somatic, though.

 

[haha ear go eeee]

Are we there yet?

Jokes, I keep waiting a few months and checking this thread. I can't believe it's still not out yet. A snail's pace is an understatement, I think a snail could go faster.

 

[antonio77]

I feel like that's a necessary disclaimer. Many people experience strong anxiety related to their tinnitus, and a reduction in volume might not seem significant to everyone. Additionally, since we cannot measure the extent of damage in individuals, it's reasonable to hypothesize that those with tinnitus and more extensive damage may not experience improvement or may have other factors that make them less likely to respond to treatment.

I still don't understand why MRI isn't used to determine if a person has tinnitus. Years ago, it was reported that in people with tinnitus, a specific part of the brain lit up during an MRI. Why isn't this technique used to monitor whether someone's tinnitus improves or not? Am I missing something?

 

[IYIiKe]

I still don't understand why MRI isn't used to determine if a person has tinnitus. Years ago, it was reported that in people with tinnitus, a specific part of the brain lit up during an MRI. Why isn't this technique used to monitor whether someone's tinnitus improves or not? Am I missing something?

For a couple of reasons:

An MRI isn't used to diagnose tinnitus; it's done to rule out other pathologies that might be contributing to or causing it. I think you're referring to an fMRI, which may be able to identify certain brain areas that are activated and may or may not contribute to tinnitus.

However, that doesn't really tell you much. What's the point?

An insurance company isn't going to cover the cost of an expensive diagnostic tool when the treatment remains the same. There's no benefit in having an fMRI to identify tinnitus, which can be perfectly diagnosed based on symptoms presented clinically. There's no scientific basis for using it to monitor "improvement" in tinnitus, and any data gathered would be both costly and scientifically meaningless—a collection of uncontrolled, irrelevant data points. There's no scenario where insurance companies or doctors would want a patient to routinely get an fMRI just to monitor which regions of the brain are activated on a given day, especially when those activations may not even be related to tinnitus.