Tinnitus Ring Not Imaginary. Exists in the Brain, Study Finds

A new study of the human brain reveal why current treatments may not be effective in curing tinnitus.

Conducted by a team of international researchers at University of Iowa, the study shows that tinnitus involves a much larger portion of the brain than previously thought. Until the recent study, it was perceived as response to damaged hearing involving only the auditory sensory portions of the brain. The new study shows that the condition could also involve memory and perception areas.

"This has profound implications for the understanding and treatment of tinnitus, as we now know it is not encoded like normal sound, and may not be treatable by just targeting a localized part of the hearing system," said study's co-leader Phillip Gander, at the university's department of neurosurgery.

To arrive at their findings, researchers inserted electrodes into the brain of test subject, a 50-year old man who availed surgical treatment for epilepsy at the university. According to The New York Times, researchers then momentarily suppressed tinnitus by getting him to listen to white noise when awake. This was followed by allowing the ringing sound associated with tinnitus and recording brain responses.

Researchers said it was a rare and unique opportunity to have a subject with epilepsy and tinnitus.

"The sheer amount of the brain across which the tinnitus network is present suggests that tinnitus may not simply 'fill in the gap' left by hearing damage, but also actively infiltrates beyond this into wider brain systems," Gander said. The study is expected to pave the wave for new and improved approaches to treating the condition.

The study has been published in the journal Current Biology.