Listening to tailor-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity

Abstract

Maladaptive auditory cortex reorganization may contribute to the generation and maintenance of tinnitus. Because cortical organization can be modified by behavioral training, we attempted to reduce tinnitus loudness by exposing chronic tinnitus patients to self-chosen, enjoyable music, which was modified ("notched") to contain no energy in the frequency range surrounding the individual tinnitus frequency. After 12 months of regular listening, the target patient group (n = 8) showed significantly reduced subjective tinnitus loudness and concomitantly exhibited reduced evoked activity in auditory cortex areas corresponding to the tinnitus frequency compared to patients who had received an analogous placebo notched music treatment (n = 8). These findings indicate that tinnitus loudness can be significantly diminished by an enjoyable, low-cost, customtailored notched music treatment, potentially via reversing maladaptive auditory cortex reorganization.cortical plasticity | human auditory cortex | lateral inhibition | magnetoencephalography | MEG S ubjective tinnitus (1) is among the most prevalent symptoms of hearing disorders in industrialized countries (2, 3). Tinnitus loudness can be considered as the most tangible tinnitus characteristic. In 1-3% of the general population, the tinnitus sensation is loud enough to affect the quality of life (4). Causal treatment strategies for tinnitus are not yet available.The lack of treatment strategies is due to incomplete knowledge concerning the mechanisms of tinnitus generation and maintenance. However, recent neurophysiological studies have shown that tinnitus is presumably caused by maladaptive auditory cortex reorganization (4-6) (similar phenomena were observed also in somatosensory cortex; refs. 7-9). For instance, magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies have demonstrated that auditory cortical map areas corresponding to the tinnitus frequency were distorted; the amount of distortion correlated positively with perceived tinnitus strength (10). Moreover, auditory cortex activity corresponding to the tinnitus frequency was shown to be enhanced and related to perceived tinnitus intrusiveness (11).To date, widely used tinnitus treatment strategies (e.g., tinnitus retraining therapy; ref. 12) are merely symptom management approaches. Therefore, there is a great demand for causal treatment approaches targeting the tinnitus percept more directly. Recent neurophysiological studies indicate that behavioral training can be a powerful means to reverse maladaptive cortical reorganization (7, 13).A previous study (14) demonstrated that listening to spectrally "notched" music can reduce cortical activity corresponding to the notch center frequency, possibly through lateral inhibition. Motivated by this finding, we developed an innovative tinnitus treatment strategy aimed at reducing tinnitus loudness. The treatment regimen consists of regular listening to enjoyable, custom-tailored notched music. Here, we evaluate and report results of the treatment from a longitudinal double-blinded ...

Tinnitusu olan bireylerde müzik terapisinin yaşam kalitesi üzerine etkisi

“…Çalışmamızda müzik terapisi ile, tinnitus hastalarının tinnitustan duydukları rahatsızlık düzeyi ve yaşam kalitesi üzerinde iyileşme sağlanmıştır. Bu sonuç, metodolojik farklılıklar göstermekle birlikte, literatür ile uyumludur [15,16,[20][21][22][23][24]. Argstatter ve ark.…”

Neuroplasticity-targeted Intervention for Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A New Therapeutic Direction

“…post-stroke recovery), whereas other forms of plasticity can induce maladaptive neuroplastic changes and negatively affect disease pathogenesis [25,27,41,[55][56][57]. Notable examples of maladaptive cortical reorganization include focal hand dystonia [58], phantom limb pain [59], and tinnitus [60,61], which can have disastrous effects on one's quality of life [41]. Most strategies addressing the adverse consequences of plasticity involve prevention rather than promotion.…”

Chronic Tinnitus

“…In other auditory stimulation procedures, precisely the frequencies in which the tinnitus tone is localized are removed from the frequency spectrum ("tailor-made notched music training"). In a pilot study in a small group of patients, daily stimulation outside the tinnitus spectrum for a period of a year showed a significant reduction in ear noise volume compared with a control condition (37).…”