STUDYING THE ACCURACY OF SOUND LOCALIZATION IN NORMAL HEARING SUBJECTS WITH TINNITUS

Abstract

Tinnitus is a phantom auditory sensation that affects approximately 10- 20 % of the general population. Subjective tinnitus is characterized by an ongoing conscious perception of a sound in the absence of an actual external sound source. Previous studies reported that tinnitus hinder concentration, attention ability and hearing performance, even in normal hearing patients. The sound localization ability is one of the higher functions of the hearing system.Binaural hearing is important for sound Localization as it needed for the perception of interaural intensity differences (IID) and interaural time differences (ITD). As the effect of tinnitus on localization is still controversial. We examine whether tinnitus can affect sound localization ability or not in normal hearing individuals with and without tinnitus using different stimulus at different situation.Aim of the studyThe aim of this study was to test localization accuracy in tinnitus patients with normal hearing.PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients: This study involved two groups of subjects a 20 patient in tinnitus group and 20 patient ingroup who never experienced tinnitus before both groups with normal conventional PTA. The study was conducted in the audiology unit, Otorhinolaryngology department of Alexandria main university hospital.