Multimodal music training strategy to reverse maladaptive cortical reorganization associated with chronic tinnitus

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The core aim of this project is the development and the behavioral and electrophysiological evaluationof an individually tailored, multimodal music training strategy for the treatment of tonal tinnitus. Astraining stimulus, we will utilize music, which will be generated by the patients themselves by means ofplaying piano. The generated music will be filtered in real-time (i.e. amongst others suppression of afrequency band that is centered at the individual tinnitus frequency) and listened to via headphonesduring the training. The individually modified music is intended to partly or fully reverse maladaptivecortical reorganization outcomes that underlie the tinnitus perception by means of the regional (i.e. inauditory cortex regions involved into tinnitus perception) strengthening of inhibitory neuronal networks.Due to the (i) multimodality of the training (i.e. simultaneous involvement of motor as well as differentsensory brain regions), the (ii) motivation (which can be expected because the patients will playfavorite music of their choice), and the (iii) attention that necessarily has to be focused on all involvedmodalities, we expect maximum training efficacy. By means of the inclusion of suitable control patientsgroups, the roles of the factors multimodality and attention for training efficacy will be investigated.Secondary objectives are (i) the analysis of auditory phantom perception-related (i.e. tonal tinnitus,Zwicker tone) spontaneous cortical activity, as well as (ii) the investigation of effects of tinnitus-focused attention on cortical activity by means of MEG.