'Rebooting' brain could ease ringing in ears
Scientists have found a way to ease chronic ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus, by stimulating a neck nerve and playing sounds to reboot the brain, according to research published Wednesday.
There is currently no cure for tinnitus, which can range from annoying to debilitating and affects as many as 23 million adults in the United States, including one in 10 seniors and 40 percent of military veterans.
I acquired a mild case of tinnitus early in adulthood, a vague omnipresent hum or ring. I'm not really quite sure when it started, although an ear infection (swimmers ear), using a chain saw, and practicing with a high powered rifle with ear protection all seem likely candidates as contributors. It would be a real boon to get rid of it. Faster, please!
To fix that, researchers used rats to test a theory that they could reset the brain by retraining it so that errant neurons return to their normal state.
In rats with tinnitus, they electrically stimulated the vagus nerve, which runs from the head through the neck to the abdomen, in combination with playing a certain high-pitched tone.
When stimulated, the nerve can encourage changes in the brain by releasing chemicals such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine that act as neurotransmitters.
Rats that underwent the pairing of noise and stimulation experienced a halt to the ringing sounds for up to three and a half months, while control rats that received just noise or just stimulation did not.
An examination of neural responses in the auditory cortexes showed normal levels in the rats who were treated with the combination of stimulation and sound, indicating the tinnitus had disappeared.
The treatment "not only reorganized the neurons to respond to their original frequencies, but it also made the brain responses sharper," the study said.
So you stick a probe in my ear, shock the nerve and play music in my ear at the same time, and it stops? Skip the rats, you can try it on me.
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