Re-Training the Tinnitus Brain

[Nick47]

This was funded by RNID.

Benefit:
This treatment targets tinnitus by helping the brain to un-learn old patterns and learn new patterns of paying attention to sounds other than the tinnitus sound. Non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation is cheap, safe, reliable and user-friendly and could be developed into a home-based treatment regime. If successful, future studies will investigate how this treatment could be used in conjunction with other treatments to provide maximum benefit to people with tinnitus.

Re-training the tinnitus brain

This is a Discovery Research Grant awarded to Professor Sven Vanneste at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in 2024.

rnid.org.uk

I'm not thrilled by this at all, but don't let me influence you.

 

[RadioKid722]

Training your brain to display unawareness of tinnitus can help you regain your life. However, it doesn't completely cure the problem.

In my perspective, tinnitus happens because of a deeper spiritual issue. In most cases of eternal sin, God might condemn the sinner to Hell. But in the case of tinnitus, it serves a different purpose: it's a call from God, urging the sufferer to pray for forgiveness. Rather than punishment, it's an opportunity to reconnect with God.

The purpose of tinnitus, I believe, is to make someone think, "If there is a God, please help!"

I'm certain there is a God. When I sought forgiveness for my sins, I found peace. My tinnitus, though still very loud, stopped bothering me entirely. God saved me.

If you choose to believe it's all science and that God has no role in your tinnitus, that's your choice; but good luck to you.

For those open to being healed, I suggest reflecting on your life. Think back to the worst thing you've ever done. Not the thing you're comfortable admitting, but that one thing you don't like to think about. In my belief, that's the reason for your tinnitus. It's a sign that you haven't sought forgiveness for it yet. But you can be forgiven in most cases. If you never take the time to self-reflect and sincerely say you're sorry, you may never receive a response from a higher power.

 

[IYIiKe]

So sound therapy. Woof.

 

[Joeseph Stope]

Training your brain to display unawareness of tinnitus can help you regain your life. However, it doesn't completely cure the problem.

In my perspective, tinnitus happens because of a deeper spiritual issue. In most cases of eternal sin, God might condemn the sinner to Hell. But in the case of tinnitus, it serves a different purpose: it's a call from God, urging the sufferer to pray for forgiveness. Rather than punishment, it's an opportunity to reconnect with God.

The purpose of tinnitus, I believe, is to make someone think, "If there is a God, please help!"

I'm certain there is a God. When I sought forgiveness for my sins, I found peace. My tinnitus, though still very loud, stopped bothering me entirely. God saved me.

If you choose to believe it's all science and that God has no role in your tinnitus, that's your choice; but good luck to you.

For those open to being healed, I suggest reflecting on your life. Think back to the worst thing you've ever done. Not the thing you're comfortable admitting, but that one thing you don't like to think about. In my belief, that's the reason for your tinnitus. It's a sign that you haven't sought forgiveness for it yet. But you can be forgiven in most cases. If you never take the time to self-reflect and sincerely say you're sorry, you may never receive a response from a higher power.

How do I begin, @RadioKid722? First, let me say it is wonderful that you have found God.

I might challenge your faith somewhat with the following story.

I once met a soldier in Europe who was a member of a tinnitus group. He vividly recalled the day his tinnitus began. His platoon was engaged in live training exercises with explosions going off around them. The officer in charge had somehow failed to give the command to put on hearing protectors. From that day onward, his tinnitus began "screaming and steaming" away, and his life took the unfortunate path that many of us have also experienced.

In his case, excessive noise exposure directly caused his tinnitus, a clear case of cause and effect. Now, like many of us, he waits by the metaphorical "Pool of Gethsemane," hoping for the angel of the Lord to stir the waters and grant a cure.

Alternatively, you could say we are waiting for a scientist to find the inspiration or luck to discover a way to restore us to how we once were.

Both perspectives are valid, and of course, a true believer can hold faith in both scenarios simultaneously.

 

[*TG]

So, aside from the slightly annoying name, it's bimodal stimulation. It uses the occipital nerve, which is smart, it's C2-C3, the same target nerves as the SSD. In other words, the stimulation will target the trigeminocervical nucleus in the brainstem, which then has collateral connections all the way up the auditory pathway. It does not do anything with spike-timing dependent plasticity, however....

And technically, it's trimodal stimulation, because in addition to occipital nerve and auditory stimulation, there is a visual task. "Active listening involves performing the auditory task and ignoring visual cues and passive listening involves performing a visual task and ignoring auditory cues." So, the research starts to explore the idea of active vs. passive auditory tasks in the context of trimodal stimulation.

"Many researchers think that the brain creates a model of its environment in which it is constantly predicting what is happening, or about to happen, enabling us to be ready to respond quickly to situations as they arise." This tells us that the theory informing this experiment is coming from computational neuroscience and the idea of the Bayesian brain. For an excellent review of this, see this.

So, from the title, it was a quick roll of the eyes, but on closer examination, I see that this is based on newer thinking and not the same old Jastreboffian model.

 

[Thomas_83]

"In the case of tinnitus, if the brain has enough evidence that perceiving tinnitus is the best way to resolve the conflict, then the person will become more aware of their tinnitus. The stronger the 'evidence' the brain has, the louder the tinnitus sound will be and the more importance the brain will place on it – this causes the distress a person experiences as a result. Over time, if there is no new information to challenge the perception of tinnitus, the brain makes perceiving tinnitus its new default state."

So, if I understand correctly, when you first develop tinnitus, you should do everything you can to avoid focusing on the sound? Never listen to it and always use masking?

The research sounds promising. The brain has the ability to rewire itself.