Sound Sensation Research Articles

Treatment of tinnitus with cyclobenzaprine: an open-label study

Tinnitus is defined as an intrinsic sound sensation that cannot be attributed to an external sound source. Currently there are no standardized drug therapies for the treatment of tinnitus. Based on the analogy between pain and tinnitus it is suggested that among all antidepressant families that have been used for tinnitus, particular interest should be paid to the tricyclic group of drugs as they have an analgesic effect. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a tricyclic pharmacological agent, namely cyclobenzaprine for the relief of tinnitus complaints. 65 patients, who received the drug treatment, were compared to 30 patients on a waiting list, who received no treatment. Analysis shows that cyclobenzaprine offers some benefit to patients with tinnitus on both tinnitus intensity and tinnitus distress, while a waiting list control group does not demonstrate any improvement: 24% of the tinnitus patients showed a clear response to cyclobenzaprine with a reduction of 53% on tinnitus intensity and 25% had a clear response to cyclobenzaprine with a reduction of 55% on tinnitus distress. It was further demonstrated that particular subgroups, namely pure tone tinnitus patients and unilateral tinnitus patients, respond better to cyclobenzaprine. Our results indicate that cyclobenzaprine is a promising drug to treat tinnitus particularly in certain subgroups. As there is a good risk-benefit ratio and there are currently no well-established, specific treatments for tinnitus, cyclobenzaprine might be worthwhile to further investigate.

The Neuroscience of Tinnitus: Understanding Abnormal and Normal Auditory Perception

Tinnitus (chronic ringing of the ears in the absence of a sound source) is a major public health challenge affecting quality of life for millions of individuals around the world. Its principal cause (damage to the cochlea, which may be hidden and detected years after injury) appears to be increasing among youthful populations owing to exposure to recreational and occupational sounds for which current protective standards may be inadequate. And at present, there are no curative treatments for tinnitus. These facts alone, and the looming public health challenge they portend, are sufficient to spark its study. But research into the neural basis of tinnitus also addresses a fundamental question in neuroscience. If we can understand how the brain generates the sound of tinnitus, we may gain insight into the question of how the brain generates the sensation of other sounds. The papers published in this special issue (indicated in italics) address topics related to the neural basis of tinnitus, their implications for hearing, and the health challenge.

Future entertainment technologies

Today's computer games provide a realistic visual output combined with a convincing sound sensation. However, another important perception channel, the proprioceptive sensation, is insufficiently addressed. In particular the perception of spatial distances, which is typically supported by a real walking experience, is not yet integrated into existing games. However, walking is sensed by our limbs both in a proprioceptive way (joints, muscles etc.) and through skin surface sensors. This article describes an approach that could lead to a new quality of future computer games by integrating spatial awareness through the sensation of real walking.

When a photograph can be heard: Vision activates the auditory cortex within 110 ms

As the makers of silent movies knew well, it is not necessary to provide an actual auditory stimulus to activate the sensation of sounds typically associated with what we are viewing. Thus, you could almost hear the neigh of Rodolfo Valentino's horse, even though the film was mute. Evidence is provided that the mere sight of a photograph associated with a sound can activate the associative auditory cortex. High-density ERPs were recorded in 15 participants while they viewed hundreds of perceptually matched images that were associated (or not) with a given sound. Sound stimuli were discriminated from non-sound stimuli as early as 110 ms. SwLORETA reconstructions showed common activation of ventral stream areas for both types of stimuli and of the associative temporal cortex, at the earliest stage, only for sound stimuli. The primary auditory cortex (BA41) was also activated by sound images after ∼ 200 ms.

Auditory Brainstem Implants

The development of cochlear implantation has allowed the majority of patients deafened after the development of language to regain significant auditory benefit. In a subset of patients, however, loss of hearing results from destruction of the cochlear nerves, rendering cochlear implantation ineffective. The most common cause of bilateral destruction of the cochlear nerves is neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). The hallmark of this genetic disorder is the development of bilateral acoustic neuromas, the growth or removal of which causes deafness in most patients. Patients with NF2 may benefit from direct stimulation of the cochlear nucleus. We describe the development, use, and results of the auditory brainstem implant (ABI), which is typically implanted via craniotomy at the time of tumor removal. Most patients with the implant have good appreciation of environmental sounds, but obtain more modest benefit with regard to speech perception. The majority of patients make use of the implant to facilitate lip reading; some can, to varying degrees, comprehend speech directly. We discuss future directions in central implants for hearing, including the penetrating ABI, the use of ABI in nontumor patients, and the auditory midbrain implant.

Instruments of Music, Instruments of Science: Hermann von Helmholtz's Musical Practices, his Classicism, and his Beethoven Sonata

Summary The young Hermann Helmholtz, in an 1838 letter home, declared that he always appreciated music much more when he played it for himself. Though a frequent concert-goer, and celebrated for his highly influential 1863 work on the physiological basis of music theory, Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, it is likely that Helmholtz's enduring engagement with music began with his initial, personal experience of playing music for himself. I develop this idea, shifting the discussion of Helmholtz's work on sound sensation back to its origins, and examine the role of his material interaction with musical instruments and music itself. In his sound sensation studies, Helmholtz understood sound as an external, physical object. But Helmholtz also conceived of sound in musical terms. Further, Helmholtz's particular musical tastes as well as his deeply personal interaction with musical instruments allowed him to reconcile his conception of sound as physical object with his conception of sound as music. Helmholtz's physiological theory of sound sensation was both the product of and constitutive of how he heard and created sound. I argue that Helmholtz himself was the embodied reconciliation of his physiological theory of sound sensation and his belief that musical aesthetics were historically and culturally contingent.

Hearing loss: a common disorder caused by many rare alleles

Perception of sound is a fundamental role of the auditory system. Traveling with the force of their mechanical energy, sound waves are captured by the ear and activate the sensory pathway of this complex organ. The hair cells, specialized sensory cells within the inner ear, transmit the mechanical energy into electrical nerve stimuli that reach the brain. A large number of proteins are responsible for the overarching tasks required to maintain the complex mechanism of sound sensation. Many hearing disorders are due to single gene defects inherited in a Mendelian fashion, thus enabling clinical diagnostics. However, at the same time, hearing impairment is genetically heterogeneous, with both common and rare forms occurring due to mutations in over 100 genes. The crosstalk between human and mouse genetics has enabled comprehensive studies on gene identification and protein function, taking advantage of the tools animal models have to offer. The aim of the following review is to provide background and examples of human deafness genes and the discovery of their function in the auditory system.

The Vestibular System Mediates Sensation of Low-Frequency Sounds in Mice

The mammalian inner ear contains sense organs responsible for detecting sound, gravity and linear acceleration, and angular acceleration. Of these organs, the cochlea is involved in hearing, while the sacculus and utriculus serve to detect linear acceleration. Recent evidence from birds and mammals, including humans, has shown that the sacculus, a hearing organ in many lower vertebrates, has retained some of its ancestral acoustic sensitivity. Here we provide not only more evidence for the retained acoustic sensitivity of the sacculus, but we also found that acoustic stimulation of the sacculus has behavioral significance in mammals. We show that the amplitude of an elicited auditory startle response is greater when the startle stimuli are presented simultaneously with a low-frequency masker, including masker tones that are outside the sensitivity range of the cochlea. Masker-enhanced auditory startle responses were also observed in otoconia-absent Nox3 mice, which lack otoconia but have no obvious cochlea pathology. However, masker enhancement was not observed in otoconia-absent Nox3 mice if the low-frequency masker tones were outside the sensitivity range of the cochlea. This last observation confirms that otoconial organs, most likely the sacculus, contribute to behavioral responses to low-frequency sounds in mice.

Psychoacoustical Characteristics of Impact Ball Sounds on Concrete Floors

Measurements of impact sounds generated by an impact ball (heavy/soft impact source) were conducted in apartment buildings with box-frame type reinforced concrete structures. Variations in frequency characteristics were found in the impact ball sounds and these were classified into three frequency groups. An auditory experiment was carried out to investigate the relationship between various level indices and subjective responses to floor impact sounds. It was found that sound quality ratings (LL z and N max ) as well as instrumental metrics (L Aeq , L Amax and L m,1/1(63―500) ) showed good correlation with impact sound annoyance. Among them, L Amax was suggested as a practical descriptor of the auditory sensation of impact ball sounds on the basis of measurement and calculation procedures. Additional auditory experiments were conducted to characterize the classified impact sound groups and to evaluate the annoyance of impact ball sounds through paired comparison and semantic differential tests. The results show that the impact ball sound with a dominant sound pressure level at 250 Hz was most annoying. Sound Quality (SQ) metrics were used to explain the annoyance level of heavy-weight floor impact sounds. The annoyance obtained from the paired comparison test correlated well with loudness and fluctuation strength. In the semantic differential test, it was found that the adjectives describing loudness had a dominant effect on the subjects' annoyance levels.

San Francisco Knows What Kids–and Their Parents–Want

San Francisco Knows What Kids–and Their Parents–Want

Nursing tinnitus

It is a good time to revisit a common, but poorly understood symptom as National Tinnitus Week nears (9–15 February 2009). Tinnitus is defined as an awareness of a sound sensation not caused by an external sound stimulus. It affects about 10% of the population. For most affected, the symptom is not particularly intrusive, although 0.4% have tinnitus that severely affects their life quality. Tinnitus can have almost any quality such as hissing, buzzing, ringing, whistling or even complex sounds. The tinnitus may be in one or both ears, the middle of the head, or may even seem to come from somewhere outside the body.

Endocochlear potential depends on Cl− channels: mechanism underlying deafness in Bartter syndrome IV

Human Bartter syndrome IV is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by congenital deafness and severe renal salt and fluid loss. It is caused by mutations in BSND, which encodes barttin, a beta-subunit of ClC-Ka and ClC-Kb chloride channels. Inner-ear-specific disruption of Bsnd in mice now reveals that the positive potential, but not the high potassium concentration, of the scala media depends on the presence of these channels in the epithelium of the stria vascularis. The reduced driving force for K(+)-entry through mechanosensitive channels into sensory hair cells entails a profound congenital hearing loss and subtle vestibular symptoms. Although retaining all cell types and intact tight junctions, the thickness of the stria is reduced early on. Cochlear outer hair cells degenerate over several months. A collapse of endolymphatic space was seen when mice had additionally renal salt and fluid loss due to partial barttin deletion in the kidney. Bsnd(-/-) mice thus demonstrate a novel function of Cl(-) channels in generating the endocochlear potential and reveal the mechanism leading to deafness in human Bartter syndrome IV.

65 FIGHTING AND DEFEATING TINNITUS: FIFTEEN YEARS EXPERIENCE WITH LLLT TREATMENT IN OTONEUROLOGY

Tinnitus is a vexing disorder of hearing characterized by sound sensations originating in the head without any external stimulation. The specific etiology of these sensations is uncertain but frequently associated with hearing loss. The “neurophysiogical” model of tinnitus has enhanced appreciation of central nervous system (CNS) contributions. The model assumes that plastic changes in the primary and non-primary auditory pathways contribute to tinnitus with the former perhaps sustaining them, and the latter contributing to perceived severity and emotionality. These plastic changes are triggered by peripheral injury, which results in new patterns of brain activity due to anatomic alterations in the connectivity of CNS neurons. These alterations may change the balance between excitatory and inhibitory brain processes, perhaps producing cascades of new neural activity flowing between brainstem and cortex in a self-sustaining manner that produces persistent perceptions of tinnitus. The bases of this model are explored with an attempt to distinguish phenomenological from mechanistic explanations.Learning outcomes: (1) Readers will learn that the variables associated with the behavioral experience of tinnitus are as complex as the biological variables. (2) Readers will understand what the concept of neuroplastic brain change means, and how it is associated with tinnitus. (3) Readers will learn that there may be no one brain location associated with tinnitus, and it may result from interactions between multiple brain areas. (4) Readers will learn how disinhibition, spontaneous activity, neural synchronization, and tonotopic reorganization may contribute to tinnitus.

Biomedical applications of acoustic radiation force based on somatosensory reception

We have previously shown that short pulses of focused ultrasound may be used to stimulate locally receptor neural structures and thereby induce sensations that humans can perceive through the skin (for example tactile, warmth and cold, tickling, pain, etc.). Furthermore, ultrasound modulated by sound signals (tone, speech, music, etc.) can induce sound sensations corresponding to the nature of the modulation in persons with normal hearing. The mechanism underlying these effects that have been used in clinical diagnostic practice is related to the radiation force. We also showed recently that the phenomenon of the radiation force could be used in perspective robotic systems, sensors, and automated control systems, based on the use of tactile sensations in the human‐machine interface, as well as in devices that may allow blind and visually impaired persons to perceive textual information presented on a tactile display. The research was supported by INTAS (05‐1000008‐7841) and RFBR (06‐02‐16079).

Transient reduction of tinnitus intensity is marked by concomitant reductions of delta band power

BackgroundTinnitus is an auditory phantom phenomenon characterized by the sensation of sounds without objectively identifiable sound sources. To date, its causes are not well understood. Previous research found altered patterns of spontaneous brain activity in chronic tinnitus sufferers compared to healthy controls, yet it is unknown whether these abnormal oscillatory patterns are causally related to the tinnitus sensation. Partial support for this notion comes from a neurofeedback approach developed by our group, in which significant reductions in tinnitus loudness could be achieved in patients who successfully normalized their patterns of spontaneous brain activity. The current work attempts to complement these studies by scrutinizing how modulations of tinnitus intensity alter ongoing oscillatory activity.ResultsIn the present study the relation between tinnitus sensation and spontaneous brain activity was investigated using residual inhibition (RI) to reduce tinnitus intensity and source-space projected magnetencephalographic (MEG) data to index brain activity. RI is the sustained reduction (criteria: 50% for at least 30 s) in tinnitus loudness after cessation of a tonal tinnitus masker. A pilot study (n = 38) identified 10 patients who showed RI. A significant reduction of power in the delta (1.3–4.0 Hz) frequency band was observed in temporal regions during RI (p ≤ 0.001).ConclusionThe current results suggest that changes of tinnitus intensity induced by RI are mediated by alterations in the pathological patterns of spontaneous brain activity, specifically a reduction of delta activity. Delta activity is a characteristic oscillatory activity generated by deafferented/deprived neuronal networks. This implies that RI effects might reflect the transient reestablishment of balance between excitatory and inhibitory neuronal assemblies, via reafferentation, that have been perturbed (in most tinnitus individuals) by hearing damage. As enhancements have been reported in the delta frequency band for tinnitus at rest, this result conforms to our assumption that a normalization of oscillatory properties of cortical networks is a prerequisite for attenuating the tinnitus sensation. For RI to have therapeutic significance however, this normalization would have to be stabilized.

The role of central nervous system plasticity in tinnitus

Tinnitus is a vexing disorder of hearing characterized by sound sensations originating in the head without any external stimulation. The specific etiology of these sensations is uncertain but frequently associated with hearing loss. The “neurophysiogical” model of tinnitus has enhanced appreciation of central nervous system (CNS) contributions. The model assumes that plastic changes in the primary and non-primary auditory pathways contribute to tinnitus with the former perhaps sustaining them, and the latter contributing to perceived severity and emotionality. These plastic changes are triggered by peripheral injury, which results in new patterns of brain activity due to anatomic alterations in the connectivity of CNS neurons. These alterations may change the balance between excitatory and inhibitory brain processes, perhaps producing cascades of new neural activity flowing between brainstem and cortex in a self-sustaining manner that produces persistent perceptions of tinnitus. The bases of this model are explored with an attempt to distinguish phenomenological from mechanistic explanations. Learning outcomes: (1) Readers will learn that the variables associated with the behavioral experience of tinnitus are as complex as the biological variables. (2) Readers will understand what the concept of neuroplastic brain change means, and how it is associated with tinnitus. (3) Readers will learn that there may be no one brain location associated with tinnitus, and it may result from interactions between multiple brain areas. (4) Readers will learn how disinhibition, spontaneous activity, neural synchronization, and tonotopic reorganization may contribute to tinnitus.

Issues in human auditory development

The human auditory system is often portrayed as precocious in its development. In fact, many aspects of basic auditory processing appear to be adult-like by the middle of the first year of postnatal life. However, processes such as attention and sound source determination take much longer to develop. Immaturity of higher-level processes limits the processing of both simple and complex sounds by infants and children. Young listeners with impaired hearing may be at a particular disadvantage, in that they must make sense of sounds on the basis of a degraded representation using immature perceptual strategies. Learning outcomes: (1) Readers will be able to describe three stages of human auditory development. (2) Readers will be able to describe how experience with sound is important in auditory development. (3) Readers will be able to describe the role of attention and other higher-level processes in early audition.

Dissociating Verbal and Nonverbal Conceptual Processing in the Human Brain

Functional neuroimaging has highlighted a left-hemisphere conceptual system shared by verbal and nonverbal processing despite neuropsychological evidence that the ability to recognize verbal and nonverbal stimuli can doubly dissociate in patients with left- and right-hemisphere lesions, respectively. Previous attempts to control for perceptual differences between verbal and nonverbal stimuli in functional neuroimaging studies may have hidden differences arising at the conceptual level. Here we used a different approach and controlled for perceptual confounds by looking for amodal verbal and nonverbal conceptual activations that are common to both the visual and auditory modalities. In addition to the left-hemisphere conceptual system activated by all meaningful stimuli, we observed the left/right double dissociation in verbal and nonverbal conceptual processing, predicted by neuropsychological studies. Left middle and superior temporal regions were selectively more involved in comprehending words--heard or read--and the right midfusiform and right posterior middle temporal cortex were selectively more involved in making sense of environmental sounds and images. Thus, the neuroanatomical basis of a verbal/nonverbal conceptual processing dissociation is established.

Cross-cultural comparison of sound sensation and its prediction models for Korean traditional silk fabrics

In this study, cross-cultural comparison of sound sensation for Korean traditional silk fabrics between Korea and America was performed and prediction models for sound sensation by objective measurements including sound parameters such as level pressure of total sound (LPT), Zwicker’s psychoacoustic characteristics, and mechanical properties by Kawabata Evaluation System were established for each nation to explore the objective parameters explaining sound sensation of the Korean traditional silk. As results, Koreans felt the silk fabric sounds soft and smooth while Americans were revealed as perceiving them hard and rough. Both Koreans and Americans were pleasant with sounds of Gongdan and Newttong and especially Newttong was preferred more by Americans in terms of sound sensation. In prediction models, some of subjective sensation were found as being related mainly with mechanical properties of traditional silk fabrics such as surface and compressional characteristics.

Parameters used for acoustic qualification/quantification of automotive vehicles

The article presents, in a chronological way, the main parameters used for automotive vehicles concerning acoustic qualification/quantification. We start with the loudness concept, pass by the A weighting philosophy and arrive to the sound level reduction including sound quality. We show a lot of parameters, each trying better to match the correlation between objective results and subjective evaluations. We mention several aspects of the human ear that make it difficult to describe sound sensations through a single parameter. We emphasise also the absence of exposure time in the parameters used to evaluate acoustic comfort. We show the large gap between the parameters used in the laboratory and those applied in legislation through standards. Some conclusions are presented and the future, related to acoustic parameters, discussed.