Director- Oct 24, 2017
- 852
- Tinnitus Since
- 10/2017
- Cause of Tinnitus
- one-sided hearing loss (of unknown origin)
It's that time of year again. The time when we try to make noise about tinnitus, and no one listens. Just joking of course, but it does feel like that at times. This year for Tinnitus Week, we hope to be the bearers of good news and interesting updates. Here's what we gathered up for you 
Tinnitus Quest in the Media
The good news is that through our new non-profit Tinnitus Quest, we have been starting to gain some traction in the media. Jack Rubinacci was featured this week on Norwegian television, together with the singer Gaute – one of the most famous singers in Norway, who suffers from tinnitus. Check it out here (and follow Tinnitus Quest on Instagram).
Researchers Respond
At Tinnitus Hub, we keep focusing on what we've always done best, bridging the gap between patients and researchers. Below, you will find some contributions from tinnitus researchers. We asked them two questions:
Some other developments that might interest you:
We just published a patrons-only Tinnitus Talk Podcast video of myself and JD at the 2024 Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI) conference in Vancouver. It's a kind of 'fly on the wall' conversation where we very openly share our impressions of the conference. You can become a supporter of the podcast for only $2 per month, or purchase one-time access to this video for $5.
The American Tinnitus Association (ATA) is organizing a webinar this Sunday about objective markers for tinnitus. We believe it's a topic that will interest many of you. Guest speakers include Christopher Cederroth and Fatima Hussein. You can register here.
We used last year's Tinnitus Talk thread for Tinnitus Week to create a video for Tinnitus Quest, inspired by the heartfelt expressions in the thread. We were lucky to get two voice actors to narrate the script pro bono, you can listen to it below. Of course, it will be turned into a video soon, but we wanted to already share this preview with you.
Browse Researcher's Responses
Robin Guillard
Robin (University of Grenoble Alpes) talks about his five favorite papers of 2024:
Mehdi Abouzari
Mehdi (University of California Irvine) speaks about his favorite paper of 2024:
Joel Berger
Joel (University of Iowa) responds to our Tinnitus Talk Podcast episode with Prof. McNaughton, and also highlights two interesting papers, including one that we co-authored (!):
Hamid Djalilian
Hamid (University of California Irvine) responds to our Tinnitus Talk Podcast episode with Prof. McNaughton with some constructive criticism:
Fatima Husain
Fatima (University of Illinois) speaks about her favorite paper of 2024:
Kelly Assouly
Kelly (Cochlear) gave us a list of her favorite papers of 2024:
Mehrnaz (Bionics Institute) responded to both our queries with the following text:
Thank you to Hazel and Dr. McNaughton for clearly describing this new approach to developing a tinnitus drug. I think the hypothesis that tinnitus has its origin in the peripheral nervous system is certainly worth exploring. Based on brain imaging work on tinnitus and as Dr. McNaughton points out, central effects of tinnitus have been shown, however the hypothesis that the source is peripheral, would need the drug approach described in this podcast. The question would then be whether targeting the source also eliminates all central effects, as these two effects may become independent. As my own work focuses on use of brain imaging to monitor tinnitus treatment effects, I hope that this work reaches human trials in the near future, where we can objectively monitor central effects of the drug. Another great takeaway from this podcast is how Dr. McNaughton frames the business case that a tinnitus drug could have applications for treatment of pain, encouraging more funding for tinnitus, which is critically needed in this field.
In terms of interesting developments in 2024, new treatments using different stimulation approaches are showing promise for those living with tinnitus. If I may I'd like to say our group is excited by our findings from objective assessment of tinnitus in cochlear implant users who experience tinnitus and whose perception of the sound changes when they turn their implant on and off (Journal of Neural Engineering 2024). We found changes in our objective test were strongly related to how participants rated changes in their tinnitus loudness or annoyance. These findings provide evidence that we can monitor tinnitus changes in the same person and so creates opportunities to assess the effects of many different treatments.
Jinsheng Zhang
Jinsheng (Wayne State University) kept it short but sweet with this statement:
Neuroinflammation in the etiology and treatment of tinnitus deserves more attention.
Tinnitus Quest in the Media
The good news is that through our new non-profit Tinnitus Quest, we have been starting to gain some traction in the media. Jack Rubinacci was featured this week on Norwegian television, together with the singer Gaute – one of the most famous singers in Norway, who suffers from tinnitus. Check it out here (and follow Tinnitus Quest on Instagram).
Researchers Respond
At Tinnitus Hub, we keep focusing on what we've always done best, bridging the gap between patients and researchers. Below, you will find some contributions from tinnitus researchers. We asked them two questions:
- What do you think of Prof. Peter McNaughton's theory that tinnitus is a peripheral phenomenon? [This is in reference to the latest episode of the Tinnitus Talk Podcast, which you can listen to here.]
- What tinnitus research papers from 2024 would you like to highlight?
Some other developments that might interest you:
We just published a patrons-only Tinnitus Talk Podcast video of myself and JD at the 2024 Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI) conference in Vancouver. It's a kind of 'fly on the wall' conversation where we very openly share our impressions of the conference. You can become a supporter of the podcast for only $2 per month, or purchase one-time access to this video for $5.
The American Tinnitus Association (ATA) is organizing a webinar this Sunday about objective markers for tinnitus. We believe it's a topic that will interest many of you. Guest speakers include Christopher Cederroth and Fatima Hussein. You can register here.
We used last year's Tinnitus Talk thread for Tinnitus Week to create a video for Tinnitus Quest, inspired by the heartfelt expressions in the thread. We were lucky to get two voice actors to narrate the script pro bono, you can listen to it below. Of course, it will be turned into a video soon, but we wanted to already share this preview with you.
Browse Researcher's Responses
Robin Guillard
Robin (University of Grenoble Alpes) talks about his five favorite papers of 2024:
Mehdi Abouzari
Mehdi (University of California Irvine) speaks about his favorite paper of 2024:
Joel Berger
Joel (University of Iowa) responds to our Tinnitus Talk Podcast episode with Prof. McNaughton, and also highlights two interesting papers, including one that we co-authored (!):
Hamid Djalilian
Hamid (University of California Irvine) responds to our Tinnitus Talk Podcast episode with Prof. McNaughton with some constructive criticism:
Fatima Husain
Fatima (University of Illinois) speaks about her favorite paper of 2024:
Kelly Assouly
Kelly (Cochlear) gave us a list of her favorite papers of 2024:
- Jarach et al. The Out-of-pocket Expenses of People With Tinnitus in Europe. J Epidemiol. 2024 Nov 5;34(11):515-525. doi: 10.2188/jea.JE20230358. Epub 2024 May 25. PMID: 38797674; PMCID: PMC11464849.
- Demoen et al. Health-Related Quality of Life in Subjective, Chronic Tinnitus Patients: A Scoping Review. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2024 Apr;25(2):103-129. doi: 10.1007/s10162-024-00926-5. Epub 2024 Jan 22. PMID: 38253898; PMCID: PMC11018725.
- Wendrich et al. Tinnitus reduction in patients with single-sided deafness: the effect of cochlear implantation, bone conduction devices, and contralateral routing of sound hearing aids investigated in a randomized controlled trial. Front Neurol. 2024 Jul 23;15:1428106. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1428106. PMID: 39108653; PMCID: PMC11300248.
- Shoushtarian et al. Cochlear implant induced changes in cortical networks associated with tinnitus severity. J Neural Eng. 2024 Sep 10;21(5). doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ad731d. PMID: 39178903.
Mehrnaz (Bionics Institute) responded to both our queries with the following text:
Thank you to Hazel and Dr. McNaughton for clearly describing this new approach to developing a tinnitus drug. I think the hypothesis that tinnitus has its origin in the peripheral nervous system is certainly worth exploring. Based on brain imaging work on tinnitus and as Dr. McNaughton points out, central effects of tinnitus have been shown, however the hypothesis that the source is peripheral, would need the drug approach described in this podcast. The question would then be whether targeting the source also eliminates all central effects, as these two effects may become independent. As my own work focuses on use of brain imaging to monitor tinnitus treatment effects, I hope that this work reaches human trials in the near future, where we can objectively monitor central effects of the drug. Another great takeaway from this podcast is how Dr. McNaughton frames the business case that a tinnitus drug could have applications for treatment of pain, encouraging more funding for tinnitus, which is critically needed in this field.
In terms of interesting developments in 2024, new treatments using different stimulation approaches are showing promise for those living with tinnitus. If I may I'd like to say our group is excited by our findings from objective assessment of tinnitus in cochlear implant users who experience tinnitus and whose perception of the sound changes when they turn their implant on and off (Journal of Neural Engineering 2024). We found changes in our objective test were strongly related to how participants rated changes in their tinnitus loudness or annoyance. These findings provide evidence that we can monitor tinnitus changes in the same person and so creates opportunities to assess the effects of many different treatments.
Jinsheng Zhang
Jinsheng (Wayne State University) kept it short but sweet with this statement:
Neuroinflammation in the etiology and treatment of tinnitus deserves more attention.
