A Computational Model for the Development of Tinnitus without Apparent Hearing Loss

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event A Computational Model for the Development of Tinnitus without Apparent Hearing Loss Roland Schaette1* 1 University College London, UCL Ear Institute, United Kingdom A large body of evidence points to a relation between tinnitus and hearing loss. However, in many cases, tinnitus patients present with a normal audiogram. Recently, a study demonstrated that despite normal hearing thresholds there might still be a substantial amount of cochlear damage: when mice were subjected to mild acoustic trauma, hearing thresholds increased temporarily and recovered to normal values, but around 60%of the auditory nerve (AN) fibers were permanently deafferented in the high-frequency range (Kujawa and Liberman, 2009). Here we use a computational model to study whether such cochlear damage could lead to the development of tinnitus-related hyperactivity in central auditory neurons. Deafferentation of AN fibers decreases the overall activity of the AN and in turn reduces the mean activity of central auditory neurons. We assume that such a permanent activity reduction activates homeostatic plasticity in central auditory neurons. To stabilize the mean activity, homeostatic plasticity increases neuronal response gain. For a case where deafferentation affects predominantly high-threshold AN fibers with a low spontaneous firing rate, the overall AN spontaneous firing rate remains high, and increased central gain then leads to hyperactivity. However, when the deafferentation affects all AN fiber types to a similar degree, the overall AN spontaneous firing rate is decreased, and increased central gain does not result in hyperactivity. Our model thus demonstrates how deafferentation of AN fibers could lead to tinnitus without apparent hearing loss, and it also shows that not every pattern of cochlear damage automatically leads to tinnitus. References Kujawa, S.G., Liberman, M.C., 2009. Adding insult to injury: cochlear nerve degeneration after ”temporary” noise-induced hearing loss. J. Neurosci. 29, 14077–14085 Keywords: computational neuroscience Conference: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany, 27 Sep - 1 Oct, 2010. Presentation Type: Presentation Topic: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience Citation: Schaette R (2010). A Computational Model for the Development of Tinnitus without Apparent Hearing Loss. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2010.51.00067 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 16 Sep 2010; Published Online: 23 Sep 2010. * Correspondence: Dr. Roland Schaette, University College London, UCL Ear Institute, London, United Kingdom, r.schaette@ucl.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Roland Schaette Google Roland Schaette Google Scholar Roland Schaette PubMed Roland Schaette Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.