Ringing ears: the neuroscience of tinnitus.

Summary

Reviews evidence that deafferentation of tonotopically organized auditory structures increases spontaneous firing and neural synchrony in the hearing-loss frequency region, which is optimally suppressed by band-limited noise covering the same frequencies. Notes that many older adults with hearing loss do not develop tinnitus, possibly because their inhibitory circuits are better preserved, and that a limbic/non-auditory brain network is engaged in tinnitus, potentially driven by a mismatch between damaged-ear input and centrally predicted input.

Key findings

• Deafferentation raises spontaneous firing and synchrony specifically in the hearing-loss frequency region.
• Preserved inhibitory circuits may explain why many people with hearing loss never develop tinnitus.
• A limbic/non-auditory network is engaged, potentially reflecting a mismatch between damaged input and central prediction.