Tinnitus and Where It Originates

[WildMan]

I was reading around and found some other sites/forums and it seems to be the consensus that Tinnitus always originates from the brain. Has this been scientifically proven and does it have supporting evidence?

If someone goes to a concert and ends up suffering from T for like, a month or 2 and then their T just stops, what changed? Was it the brain or did something heal within the inner ear?

I just find it strange that the inner ear would be written off as any kind of culprit.

 

[fhs]

 

[GregCA]

I was reading around and found some other sites/forums and it seems to be the consensus that Tinnitus always originates from the brain. Has this been scientifically proven and does it have supporting evidence?

No. In fact there is evidence of the contrary, that is that some T does not originate in the brain.
That doesn't mean that no case originates in the brain. It just means that it doesn't always originate there.

Also there is a blur with the word "originate", because you could have a root cause in the inner ear (location A), but the actual compensatory mechanism being somewhere else (location B). Is the origin A or B?

And frankly, except for some specific etiologies, nobody knows for sure today. It's just hypotheses.

 

[linearb]

Well, "originates" is a loaded word. The most recent research-based theory is that loss of input on the auditory nerve causes the dorsal cochlear nucleus to rewire somatosensory (touch sensing) neurons into the auditory cortex to maintain homeostasis. So, you can make the case that the brain's tendency towards homeostasis is the "origin" of the problem -- or that the trauma to the ear is the "origin".

It's worth noting that the ear doesn't "hear" -- the ear provides a data input to the brain, but all sensory integration and therefore the experience of hearing, happens in the brain.

If this theory is correct, it's safe to say that the ongoing maintenance of the tinnitus signal is as much a brain problem as it is an ear problem.

This is supported by imaging studies in animals.

This video is a decent starting point:

 

[linearb]

If someone goes to a concert and ends up suffering from T for like, a month or 2 and then their T just stops, what changed? Was it the brain or did something heal within the inner ear?

probably they still have some hearing damage, but the brain has compensated for that in a way which doesn't involve chronic tinnitus. If chronic tinnitus was an inescapable result of hearing loss, then pretty much everyone over the age of 25-30 would have tinnitus. Different brains rewire themselves in different ways following signal loss. Likewise, if we cut the arms off 100 people, perhaps 75 of them will go on to be armless people, and 25 will become armless people with phantom pain syndrome.