Notched environmental sounds: a new hearing aid-supported tinnitus treatment evaluated in 20 patients

摘要

There is converging evidence that the genesis of tinnitus is related to deterioration of inhibition and/or upregulation of gain for deprived frequency bands in the afferent auditory pathway including the auditory cortex.1-3 There is also evidence that the organisation of the auditory scene may benefit from spectral edges because of such inhibitory mechanisms.4 Using such spectral edges in terms of notch filtering, tailor‐made notched music training (TMNMT) has been suggested to reduce tinnitus loudness and tinnitus‐related auditory cortex activity and positively evaluated using subjective and objective criteria subsequently.5 The TMNMT is designed for patients with tonal tinnitus. They have to listen to enjoyable music which has a notch centred at their tinnitus frequency. It was proposed that the acoustic stimulation provided by joyful music plays an important role in the reversion of the maladaptive reorganisation processes induced by the deprived frequency bands.5