Event Abstract Back to Event Electrical stimulation of the auditory cortex as a treatment for tinnitus Elsa Van Der Loo1*, M. Congedo2, P. Van De Heyning1 and D. De Ridder1 1 University Hospital Antwerp, Brain Research centre Antwerp for Innovative and Interdisciplinary Neuromodulation (BRAI²N), Belgium 2 National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), GIPSA-lab, France Introduction: Recently electrical stimulation delivered to the auditory cortex through extradural electrodes, has been proposed as a therapy for tinnitus. Patients who do not respond to more conventional treatments for tinnitus, and respond to placebo controlled Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), are candidates for this treatment in our multidisciplinary neuromodulation department. Although for most patients this treatment has proven to be successful, a small number experience no relief of the tinnitus after cortical stimulation. Bearing in mind the invasiveness of the treatment, it would be interesting to develop a prognostic tool, which can discern responders from non-responders to electrical stimulation. Materials and Methods: Ten patients (7 male, 3 female) with implanted electrodes participated in this study (five positively responding to cortical stimulation, and five not responding to the treatment). In all patients a 19 channel EEG following .the 10-20 system, recording was performed in relaxed state over 5 minutes with eyes opened in a sound proof and electromagnetically shielded room using Synamps2 equipment (Neuroscan Inc.), (sampling rate was 500Hz). The impedances were checked to remain below 5 kΩ and the reference was a scalp electrode near the vertex. At the time of the recording no stimulation was delivered, thus all patients were strongly aware of their tinnitus during the recordings. Independent sampled t-tests on the different frequency bands of LORETA source images were performed between responders and non-responders. Results: Responders show significant increased gamma band (30-40Hz) activity in the left parahippocampal area. Discussion: The role of the hippocampus in tinnitus is not well established but neuroimaging studies demonstrate increased metabolism in the hippocampus in tinnitus patients. Shulman developed the idea that the amygdala - hippocampal area are involved in generating a paradoxical auditory memory for tinnitus. Animal studies with noise induced tinnitus have demonstrated that hippocampal plasticity induced through the non-classical auditory pathway may be involved in tinnitus and C-fos studies confirm this. Superselective amytal injections in the anterior choroidal artery which supply the amygdalohippocampal area are capable of suppressing tinnitus transiently, supporting the idea that some form of tinnitus might be generated in the hippocampus. We therefore hypothesize that in this subgroup of patients who do not respond to auditory cortex stimulation, hippocampal gamma band activity might be involved in the tinnitus generation. Further studies will try to further analyze this hypothesis. Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Neuronal Plasticity Citation: Van Der Loo E, Congedo M, Van De Heyning P and De Ridder D (2008). Electrical stimulation of the auditory cortex as a treatment for tinnitus. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.315 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: 10 Dec 2008; Published Online: 10 Dec 2008. * Correspondence: Elsa Van Der Loo, University Hospital Antwerp, Brain Research centre Antwerp for Innovative and Interdisciplinary Neuromodulation (BRAI²N), Antwerp, Belgium, elsavdloo@netscape.net 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 Elsa Van Der Loo M. Congedo P. Van De Heyning D. De Ridder Google Elsa Van Der Loo M. Congedo P. Van De Heyning D. De Ridder Google Scholar Elsa Van Der Loo M. Congedo P. Van De Heyning D. De Ridder PubMed Elsa Van Der Loo M. Congedo P. Van De Heyning D. De Ridder 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.