Let’s hear it for tinnitus research – Newsroom

First published MAR 3, 2022Updated Mar 3, 2022

Grant Searchfield

Associate Professor Grant Searchfield is based in Audiology, School of Population Health, at the University of Auckland.

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Health & Science

In New Zealand, one in six have hearing loss and 25 percent of cases are noise-induced. Although tinnitus research in New Zealand is strong, it is underfunded.

Today, on World Hearing Day, I’d like to encourage everyone to listen with care and to avoid tinnitus – that insidious, invisible disorder.

Commonly referred to as “ringing in the ears”, tinnitus is any sound heard when no external sound is present. Up to 30 percent of the population experience mild tinnitus at some point in their life with possibly five percent experiencing distressing tinnitus.

In New Zealand, more than 13 percent of our population aged 65 and over will experience constant tinnitus. Severe tinnitus can affect concentration, interfere with hearing, disrupt sleep, and increase anxiety and depression.

Tinnitus often occurs following a slight hearing loss when the brain tries to make sense of changed hearing. The brain responds to changes at the ear by reorganising and increasing activity in different brain regions. These include those responsible for hearing, pattern detection, attention and emotion. The areas and patterns of tinnitus-related brain activity differ from person to person, making treatment difficult. These differences between people are one reason no tinnitus cure yet exists.

The good news is that New Zealand is a world leader in tinnitus research. The University of Auckland, AUT University, Canterbury and Otago Universities are all researching tinnitus. Research at the University of Auckland is focusing on personalising therapies, to take into account the large variability in people’s experiences, and individual differences in brain activity. In collaboration with AUT University we are developing novel Artificial Intelligence methods that can predict the best treatment for different people. We can already predict those who will or won’t benefit from a treatment, based on recordings of brain activity (electroencephalogram). We believe in the near future these methods will be able to “tune” therapy – in real time – meaning treatments can continually adapt to the person’s progress and tinnitus.

This new AI technology may help the development of new tinnitus drugs that target different processes and a new class of therapy – digital therapy. These use wearable computers or smartphones to train the user to adapt to tinnitus. The therapy weakens brain activity causing the tinnitus. It can include counselling, “sound therapy” to interrupt tinnitus, and brain-training games. 

The tinnitus lab at the University of …….

Source: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/lets-hear-it-for-tinnitus-research