Otolaryngology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Non-pulsatile tinnitus can be conceived as an auditory phantom percept of permanent high-pitched sound without any external sound source. While previous research and treatment focused on the inner ear, it is meanwhile widely accepted that tinnitus must not be considered as a sole dysfunction of the ear even though tinnitus is usually preceded and associated by minor to substantial hearing loss. It has rather been agreed that tinnitus emanates from a perplexing network that includes the ear and the auditory pathway, but primarily resides in the human brain. To date the general approach in tinnitus research suggests comparing data collected from individuals suffering from subjective tinnitus (TI) with data of non-affected controls. However, recent research has shown that TI is not affected to the same extent. Hence, the undisputed heterogeneity of TI may account for all the previous failures in describing a consistent and comprehensive picture of the neural and psychological interactions that may underlie tinnitus. The talk presents data from human imaging studies that aimed at identifying plastic alterations in neuroanatomical and neurophysiological patterns in TI based on comprehensive psychopathological and behavioral measurements. Our data evidences the existence of two major factors, namely distress and duration, which differentially contribute to the pathophysiology of tinnitus. These two factors correspond to characteristic patterns of increased oscillatory activity in distinct frequency bands as well as systematic increase or decrease of cortical surface area and cortical thickness. This approach allows a better understanding of individual signature of tinnitus.

Biography

Martin Meyer has completed his PhD at the age of 32 years from Max Planck Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig. He used to work as Post doc at the Universities of Edinburgh and Zurich. He is Assistant Professor for ?neuroplasticity and learning in the healthy aging brain? at University of Zurich and Co-director of the ?International Aging and Plasticity Imaging Centre?. He has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals. His present research focuses on neuroplasticity of tinnitus, functional neuroanatomy of the perisylvian region and neurocognition of speech perception and hearing loss.