Developing tinnitus relieving sounds for cochlear implant users

Deafness Research UK has awarded a PhD Studentship to be supervised by Drs Bob Carlyon and David Baguley at Cambridge University. It aims to develop tinnitus relieving sounds for cochlear implant users.

(Studentship: 2010-2015, part time)

Tinnitus can have a profound effect on a person's quality of life and interfere with their ability to work, sleep and relax. About 4.5% of people suffer from tinnitus that is either moderately or severely annoying. One well established method for managing tinnitus is sound therapy, in which the patient listens to relaxing environmental sounds such as the wind or the ocean.

These sounds were developed for patients who can either hear normally or who have a hearing aid. It came to the researcher's attention that they are not very effective for cochlear implant (CI) patients who (as is quite common) suffer from tinnitus.

The researchers have used a computer program to show how these environmental sounds are processed by a CI; the CI blurs the slowly varying amplitude modulations in the sounds, which may help explain patients' remarks that they all sound similar to each other.

The researchers have also developed a new set of sounds that initial observations suggest are heard as quite different from each other. The student will develop and test these sounds further, with the aim of eventually developing a computer program that will allow patients to select an effective sound that is right for them.