Development of a New Strategy for Treatment of Tonal Tinnitus Based on Lateral Inhibition and Plasticity of the Human Auditory Cortex

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Neuroscience research over the last several years supports the view that tinnitus is a neuroplastic phenomenon which develops, when the auditory cortex is deprived of its normal input by partial hearing loss. Three different neuroscientific and electrophysiological factors seem to play a particular role in this view: neuroplasticity, cortical remodeling and lateral inhibition. Recently there were indications that the human auditory cortex can be remodeled with suitably designed behavioral training procedures, and that it is possible to measure these changes by means of magnetoencephalography. Obtained results are pointing out that it would be possible to use the knowledge gained from the studies of human neural plasticity in normal hearing subjects to design training procedures that may partly reverse the cortical changes that lead to tinnitus, or prevent these changes from occurring in individuals, who are at risk for tinnitus owing to partial hearing loss. In this research project we are planning two series of experimental work. In the first one we will further investigate the basic mechanisms of auditory lateral inhibition by series of quantitative manipulations of the masking and testing signals. The insights, which are expected to be gained, will allow not only to better understand the lateral inhibition in the central part of the auditory system that is insufficiently investigated, but also to prepare the best possible tinnitus masker design for the second part of the experiments. The newly developed approach for tinnitus management, based mainly on the effects of lateral inhibition and cortical remodeling, will then be tested in a population of patients with tonal tinnitus in a double-blinded experimental design in conjunction with a modified clinical tinnitus test battery. The clinical and the psycho-acoustic results obtained in the tinnitus group will be correlated with the quantitative results of neurophysiological measurements performed by whole head magnetoencephalography.