The investigators propose to study a group of approximately 35 patients with tinnitus resulting from various etiologies using psychophysical measures to ascertain the pitch, intensity, and masking susceptibility of each subject's tinnitus. Functional activation images of cortical and subcortical areas will be obtained by comparing MR images acquired while patients are experiencing tinnitus with images acquired while the tinnitus is masked or modified by presentation of broadband noise. MR activity in tinnitus patients will be compared with that of normal subjects and hearing-impaired patients stimulated with broadband noise.
Melcher, J R; Sigalovsky, I S; Guinan Jr, J J et al. (2000) Lateralized tinnitus studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging: abnormal inferior colliculus activation. J Neurophysiol 83:1058-72 |
Levine, R A (1999) Somatic (craniocervical) tinnitus and the dorsal cochlear nucleus hypothesis. Am J Otolaryngol 20:351-62 |