We all know that tinnitus gets louder when we plug our ears. This is so obvious and common that there's little need to debate it.
But *why* does this happen?
One common theory is that by blocking off all outside sounds, you reduce further the ability for natural sound waves to get to the cochlea/brain, and thereby increase the impovershed sound state further. But does this really make sense? If you put your finger in your ear, in out in out in out, your tinnitus immediately goes up down up down up down. Could the brain really react to this "impovershment" so quickly? Seems unlikely to me that the up-/down-filtering of the gain of the auditory system would happen on such a timescale (our hearing would be bouncing around like a pinata at all times if that were the case).
Another common theory - probably the most common one - is that by blocking out the rest of the world, we lose all natural masking, and so hear the tinnitus more clearly. But let's think about this one too: when I'm in the car, and I put in my musician plugs and block out 15 decibels or so, what that means is that the 80 dB engine of my car is now reduced down to a nice, comfortable 65 decibels. This is still louder than a moderate office environment, and about the same volume as a normal conversation from 3 feet. And yet, because my plugs are in, my tinnitus can blare above the constant 65 dB car engine that should normally do a pretty darn good job of masking. So what gives here?
Anyone else have any thoughts/insights?
-Matt
But *why* does this happen?
One common theory is that by blocking off all outside sounds, you reduce further the ability for natural sound waves to get to the cochlea/brain, and thereby increase the impovershed sound state further. But does this really make sense? If you put your finger in your ear, in out in out in out, your tinnitus immediately goes up down up down up down. Could the brain really react to this "impovershment" so quickly? Seems unlikely to me that the up-/down-filtering of the gain of the auditory system would happen on such a timescale (our hearing would be bouncing around like a pinata at all times if that were the case).
Another common theory - probably the most common one - is that by blocking out the rest of the world, we lose all natural masking, and so hear the tinnitus more clearly. But let's think about this one too: when I'm in the car, and I put in my musician plugs and block out 15 decibels or so, what that means is that the 80 dB engine of my car is now reduced down to a nice, comfortable 65 decibels. This is still louder than a moderate office environment, and about the same volume as a normal conversation from 3 feet. And yet, because my plugs are in, my tinnitus can blare above the constant 65 dB car engine that should normally do a pretty darn good job of masking. So what gives here?
Anyone else have any thoughts/insights?
-Matt
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