Focusing attention on tinnitus treatment

28 January 2008

Phantom  noises that mimic ringing in the ears associated with tinnitus can be  experienced by people with normal hearing in quiet situations, according to new  research published in the January 2008 edition of Otolaryngology - Head and  Neck Surgery.

The study, conducted at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil, found that among 66 people with normal hearing and no tinnitus, 68 percent experienced tinnitus-like noises when asked to focus on their hearing while in a silent room. This is compared to 45.5 percent of participants who heard phantom ringing when asked to focus on visual stimuli rather than hearing, and just 19.7 percent of those performing an unrelated task.

Previous research has shown that people without tinnitus can experience head noises in certain circumstances, but this is the first study to find that the phantom ringing goes away for the normal hearing participants when attention is directed away from listening, even in a silent environment.

While the participants of this study did not experience tinnitus outside the quiet room in which the experiment took place, this research is important for the millions of people who suffer with real tinnitus. The authors believe these findings show that the role of attention to symptoms, as well as silence, plays a large part in the severity of the condition.

The implications for treatment of tinnitus are that, in addition to using noise-generators to produce a competing sound, or any other sound enrichment, therapeutic approaches should target the focus of attention of tinnitus sufferers.