Influence of repeated acoustic overstimulation on the development of tinnitus in the Mongolian gerbil

耳鸣的出现后，声音过度刺激和损伤的内耳是一个巨大的心理负担的患者，往往导致经济损失，通过提前退休的工作生活。由此产生的幻影噪声的确切原因在很大程度上是未知的，这是由于内耳和大脑中各种参与中心的大量复杂关系。在过去，耳鸣的基础研究往往是耗时和复杂的，因为可用的方法来检测耳鸣在实验室动物。然而，现在有一种新的方法可以在实验室动物中进行有效和详细的耳鸣调查。动物耳鸣，现在可以确定反射使用修改的声音惊吓反应。基于早期对蒙古沙鼠耳鸣发展的成功研究（Nowotny等人，2011年），我们计划进行新的调查，以获得更多的见解耳鸣的起源后，反复声过度刺激。初步结果表明，所谓的内耳隐藏性听力损失，可以通过详细分析脑电位来识别，可能与耳鸣的出现有关。此外，我们的研究结果表明，隐性听力损失可能是一个总结性的过程。因此，反复的声音过度刺激可能会增加患耳鸣的风险。我们将在沙鼠身上验证我们的假设。为了避免对实验室动物进行不必要的治疗，我们将与那些已经患有耳鸣的动物平行进行关于声学创伤引起的内耳损伤和大脑活动变化的相关研究。

The emergence of tinnitus after acoustic overstimulation and damage to the inner ear is an enormous psychological burden for patients and often leads to economic losses through early retirement from working life. The exact causes of the resulting phantom noise are largely unknown, which is due to the high number of complex relationships in the inner ear and in the various participating centers in the brain. In the past, basic research on tinnitus was often time consuming and complicated because of the available methods to detect tinnitus in laboratory animals. However, a new method now allows the effective and detailed investigation of tinnitus in laboratory animals. Animals with tinnitus can now be identified by a reflex using a modification of the acoustic startle response. Based on earlier successful studies on the development of tinnitus in the Mongolian gerbil (Nowotny et al., 2011), we plan new investigations to obtained more insights into the origin of tinnitus after repeated acoustic overstimulation. Preliminary results suggest that a so called hidden hearing loss in the inner ear, which can be identified with a detailed analysis of brain potentials, is potentially related to the emergence of tinnitus. Furthermore, our results indicate that the hidden hearing loss could be a summative process. Hence, repeated acoustic overstimulation could increase the risk of developing tinnitus. We will test our hypotheses on gerbils. To avoid unnecessary treatment of laboratory animals, we will perform related studies on acoustic trauma-induced damage in the inner ear and changes in brain activity with those animals already suffering from tinnitus in parallel.