A University of Michigan study found that personalized bisensory stimulation combining individual tinnitus spectra and electrical stimulation can significantly reduce tinnitus symptoms, improving quality of life. This method, which will be commercialized by Auricle Inc., offers new hope for the effective treatment of millions of tinnitus sufferers.
A new innovative treatment device tackles the hissing sound of silence.
Tinnitus, the ringing, buzzing, or hissing sound of silence, ranges in severity from a minor annoyance for some to seriously damaging for others. In the United States, about 15% of adults experience tinnitus, with nearly 40% of these people struggling with the condition on a chronic basis and actively pursuing treatment for relief.
A promising new study conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute suggests that such relief may be achievable.
Susan Shore, Ph.D., professor emeritus in Michigan Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology and UM’s Departments of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, leads research into how the brain processes bisensory information and how these processes can be used for personalized stimulation to treat noise in the ears.
Her team’s findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
The study, a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, recruited 99 individuals with somatic tinnitus, a form of the condition in which movements such as clenching the jaw or applying pressure to the forehead result in a noticeable change in the pitch or loudness of the experienced sound. Nearly 70% of tinnitus sufferers have a somatic form.
According to Shore, applicants with bothersome somatic tinnitus as well as normal to moderate hearing loss were eligible to participate.
“Upon enrollment, participants received a portable device developed and manufactured by in2being, LLC, for home use,” she said. “The devices were programmed to present each participant’s personal tinnitus spectrum, which was combined with electrical stimulation to form a bi-sensory stimulus, while blinding the participants and the research team.”
Study participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group received a bi-sensory or active treatment first, while the second group received a sound-only or control treatment.
During the first six weeks, participants were instructed to use their devices for 30 minutes each day. The next six weeks gave the participants a break from daily use, followed by another six weeks of the treatment not received at the start of the study.
Shore notes that each week, participants completed the Tinnitus Functional Index, or TFI, and the Tinnitus Disability Inventory, or THI, which are questionnaires that measure the impact of tinnitus on people’s lives. During this time, participants were also assessed for tinnitus severity.
The team found that when participants received bisensory treatment, they consistently reported improved quality of life, lower disability scores, and a significant reduction in tinnitus loudness. However, these effects were not observed when receiving sound-only stimulation.
Additionally, more than 60% of participants reported significantly reduced tinnitus symptoms after the six weeks of active treatment, but not control treatment. This is consistent with an earlier study by Shore’s team that showed that the longer participants received active treatment, the greater the reduction in their tinnitus symptoms.
“This study paves the way for the use of personalized bisensory stimulation as an effective treatment for tinnitus, providing hope for millions of tinnitus sufferers,” Shore said.
Reference: “Reversal of Synchronized Brain Circuits Using Targeted Auditory-Somatosensory Stimulation for the Treatment of Phantom Perceptions – A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Gerilyn R. Jones, David T. Martel, Travis L. Riffle, Josh Errickson, Jacqueline R. Souter, By Gregory J. Basura, Emily Stucken, Kara C. Schvartz-Leyzac, and Susan E. Shore, 2 Jun 2023, JAMA Network Open.
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.15914
The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Auricle Inc., the exclusive licensee of the patents related to bi-sensory stimulation, was launched with the help of Innovation Partnerships, the central research commercialization center at the University of Michigan. Auricle will work to obtain regulatory approval and then commercialize Shore’s new bisensory tinnitus treatment.
To keep up with the team’s progress, sign up for updates by emailing to (email protected).