Abstract
Tinnitus describes the subjective perception of a sound despite the absence of external stimulation. Being a sensory symptom the majority of studies focusses on the auditory pathway. In the recent years, a series of studies suggested a crucial involvement of the limbic system in the manifestation and development of chronic tinnitus. Regarding cognitive symptoms, several reviews addressed the presence of cognitive impairments in tinnitus as well and concluded that attention and memory processes are affected. Despite the importance for social communication and the reliance on a highly functional auditory system, speech comprehension remains a largely neglected field in tinnitus research. This is why we review here the existing literature on speech and language functions in tinnitus patients. Reviewed studies suggest that speech comprehension is impaired in patients with tinnitus, especially in the presence of competing noise. This is even the case in tinnitus patients with normal hearing thresholds. Additionally, speech comprehension measures seem independent of other measures such as tinnitus severity and perceived tinnitus loudness. According to the majority of authors, the speech comprehension difficulties arise as a result of central processes or dysfunctional neuroplasticity.
Highlights
Impairment of General Cognitive Functions in TinnitusTinnitus describes the perception of a sound in the absence of physical stimulation and is called a phantom percept
From the 13 studies reported here, 12 evidenced impairments of speech perception in patients suffering from chronic tinnitus
The results demonstrated that tinnitus patients were impaired in various aspects of auditory perception such as frequency discrimination, temporal resolution and speech recognition in noise, i.e., aspects that are not reflected in a pure tone audiogram
Summary
Impairment of General Cognitive Functions in TinnitusTinnitus describes the perception of a sound in the absence of physical stimulation and is called a phantom percept. As tinnitus is characterized as a sensory and auditory phenomenon, most studies addressed dysfunctions of the auditory pathways. Several studies suggested that peripheral, and central auditory systems and dysfunctional neuroplastic processes as a consequence of deafferentation contribute to the development of the impairment (Møller, 2007). Research provided evidence that auditory pathways are affected, and the limbic system which is involved in affective processing (see e.g., Husain, 2016). The support for this was provided by imaging studies, but was gained from clinical reports stressing the high comorbidity of tinnitus with psychiatric disorders (Andersson, 2002)
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