In this project, Professor Sven Vanneste at Trinity College Dublin explores if the brain can be re-trained to pay attention to actual sounds over tinnitus, breaking the association between tinnitus perception and the distress it causes.
Project start date: September 2024
Project end date: September 2027
About the project
Many researchers think that the brain creates a model of its environment in which it is constantly predicting what is happening, or about to happen, enabling us to be ready to respond quickly to situations as they arise. In the case of tinnitus, the brain makes perceiving tinnitus its default state.
Professor Vanneste’s team are creating a new treatment to see if they can shift the brain’s prediction closer to perceiving “silence” in the absence of an external sound (the normal default state).
The treatment combines non-invasive electrical stimulation of a part of the brain called the occipital nerve (located at the back of the head) with carrying out an auditory task every day for seven days.
How it works
Participants are randomly assigned to one of four groups, which combine stimulation (or no stimulation) with active or passive listening tasks. Active listening means focussing on auditory and ignoring visual cues, passive listening means ignoring auditory and focusing on visual cues.
Participants undergo the assigned treatment combination for seven days.The researchers monitor the loudness of participants’ tinnitus and level of distress before the treatment, immediately after it, and 28 days after the treatment has ended.
How will this research benefit people with tinnitus?
Active sound stimulation reduces the tinnitus information provided to the brain and suppresses the loudness of the tinnitus sound. By asking the brain to allocate attention to the task instead of the tinnitus sound, the treatment should also reduce the associated distress. Stimulation of the occipital nerve should enhance these effects so that the treatment has a lasting effect.
If it is successful, future studies can next investigate how it could be used alongside other treatments to provide maximum benefit to people with tinnitus.
About the researcher
Sven Vanneste is a Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He was awarded the RNID Discovery Research Grant in 2024.
Tinnitus often feels invisible to others, yet it can have a significant impact on daily life, sleep, and emotional well-being. The drive to help people find relief from this constant noise pushes me to keep learning about new research and treatments.”
