2024-01-04 14:13:03
10 to 15% of the population suffer from tinnitus, these whistling or buzzing sounds heard but unrelated to external noise. A study in the journal “Nature” identifies a new cause: cerebral overactivity. This discovery opens the way to a possibility of treatment, a first.
It can be heard in one or both ears, like ringing or crackling noises… While there are several types, tinnitus is almost always synonymous with discomfort in daily life. The reason for their occurrence is still unclear but hearing trauma, such as listening to music too loudly, is often blamed. A study from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital, published in the revue Naturehowever, identifies a new cause.
First conclusion: tinnitus is not always linked to hearing loss. Inserm considers that “Approximately 80% of tinnitus is linked to hearing loss”. What regarding the remaining 20%? This new study highlights the degradation of the cochlear nerve, a snail-shaped organ in the inner ear, while the sensory cells are intact.
The people concerned have “hidden hearing loss”according to Professor Stéphane Maison, one of the authors of the study, interviewed by Science and Future : they hear well but do not understand what is said to them because the intelligibility of a sound does not always depend on its volume.
A treatment to regenerate the nerve?
American researchers then studied how the body adapted to this degradation of the nerve and observed hyperactivity of the brain. By exposing patients to clicking sounds, they noticed that they reacted more strongly than others. To fill this “hidden hearing loss”the brain creates phantom noises: this is tinnitus.
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With this discovery, a new treatment might be imagined. Doctors have succeeded in regenerating damaged fibers in mice by giving them drugs. Hope therefore also exists for human medicine, even if it is still quite distant. Currently, no curative treatment exists. Only solutions to reduce this tinnitus are offered to patients, such as white noise generators.
Zoe SAMIN
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