kat, i hope they figure it out. because i have it all! the chirping, the
buzzing, roaring like a wind tunnel, the whistling, shrieking (like the new
fangled sirens). in fact the other day i was thinking , wondering if cochear
implant would kill the tinnitus?
Thanks,
Tamar
~~~~~~~~
When the power of love overcomes the love of power,
the world will come to know [log in to unmask]
http://www.zazzle.com/TamarMag*Yes, please include the * so I get paid a little
higher royalty.
________________________________
From: Kathleen Salkin <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, January 12, 2011 6:44:22 PM
Subject: Re: REBOOTING THE BRAIN HELPS STOP THE RING OF TINNITUS IN RATS
Mag,
If they test hearing response anything like the programming for my cochlear
implants, there's probably a computer program that tells the researcher how
the brain is reacting to sound stimuli (and yes it's wired).
Kat
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 9:17 PM, Tamar Raine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> oh boy, sign me up!
>
> oh.... how do they know the rats had tinnitis? and how do they know it
> stopped?
> they taught the rats how to ring a bell or something?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Tamar
>
> ~~~~~~~~
> When the power of love overcomes the love of power,
>
> the world will come to know [log in to unmask]
> http://www.zazzle.com/TamarMag*Yes, please include the * so I get paid a
> little
> higher royalty.
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Meir Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wed, January 12, 2011 10:25:08 AM
> Subject: FW: REBOOTING THE BRAIN HELPS STOP THE RING OF TINNITUS IN RATS
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NIH news releases and news items [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of NIH OLIB (NIH/OD)
> Sent: January 12, 2011 13:00
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: REBOOTING THE BRAIN HELPS STOP THE RING OF TINNITUS IN RATS
>
> U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
> NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
> National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
> <http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/>
> Embargoed for Release: Wednesday, January 12, 2011, 1 p.m. EST
>
> CONTACT: Jennifer Wenger, 301-496-7243,
><e-mail:[log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]>
> >
>
> REBOOTING THE BRAIN HELPS STOP THE RING OF TINNITUS IN RATS
>
> NIH-funded researchers were able to eliminate tinnitus in a group of rats
> by
> stimulating a nerve in the neck while simultaneously playing a variety of
> sound tones over an extended period of time, says a study published today
> in
> the advance online publication of the journal Nature. The hallmark of
> tinnitus is often a persistent ringing in the ears that is annoying for
> some, debilitating for others, and currently incurable. Similar to pressing
> a reset button in the brain, this new therapy was found to help retrain the
> part of the brain that interprets sound so that errant neurons reverted
> back
> to their original state and the ringing disappeared. The research was
> conducted by scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas and
> MicroTransponder Inc., in Dallas.
>
> "Current treatments for tinnitus generally involve masking the sound or
> learning to ignore it," said James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of
> the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
> (NIDCD), which funded a large part of the research. "If we can find a way
> to
> turn off the noise, we'll be able to improve life substantially for the
> nearly 23 million American adults who suffer from this disorder."
>
> Tinnitus is a symptom some people experience as a result of hearing loss.
> When sensory cells in the inner ear are damaged, such as from loud noise,
> the resulting hearing loss changes some of the signals sent from the ear to
> the brain. For reasons that are not fully understood, some people will
> develop tinnitus as a result.
>
> "We believe the part of the brain that processes sounds-the auditory
> cortex-delegates too many neurons to some frequencies, and things begin to
> go awry," said Michael Kilgard, Ph.D., associate professor of behavior and
> brain sciences at UT-Dallas, and a co-principal investigator on the study.
> "Because there are too many neurons processing the same frequencies, they
> are firing much stronger than they should be."
>
> In addition, the neurons fire in sync with one another and they also fire
> more frequently when it is quiet. According to Dr. Kilgard, it's these
> changing brain patterns that produce tinnitus, which is usually a
> high-pitched tone in one or both ears, but it may also be heard as
> clicking,
> roaring, or a whooshing sound.
>
> Dr. Kilgard, along with co-principal investigator Navzer Engineer, M.D.,
> Ph.D., of MicroTransponder, Inc., and others on the research team first
> sought to induce changes in the auditory cortex of a group of rats by
> pairing stimulation of the vagus nerve, a large nerve that runs from the
> head and neck to the abdomen, with the playing of a single tone. When the
> vagus nerve is stimulated, it releases acetylcholine, norepinephrine, and
> other chemicals that help encourage changes in the brain. They wanted to
> find out if they could induce more brain cells to become responsive to that
> tone over a period of time.
>
> For 20 days, 300 times a day, researchers played a high-pitched tone, at 9
> kilohertz (kHz), to eight rats. At the same time that the tone was played,
> an electrode delivered a very small electrical pulse to the vagus nerve.
> The
> researchers found that the number of neurons tuned to the 9 kHz frequency
> had jumped by 79 percent in comparison to the control rats.
>
> In a second group of rats, they randomly played two different tones -- one
> at 4 kHz and the other at 19 kHz -- but stimulated the vagus nerve only for
> the higher tone. Neurons tuned to the higher frequency increased by 70
> percent while neurons tuned to the 4 kHz tone actually decreased in number,
> indicating that the tone alone was not enough to initiate the change. It
> had
> to be accompanied by vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).
>
> Next, the researchers tested whether tinnitus could be reversed in
> noise-exposed rats by increasing the numbers of neurons tuned to
> frequencies
> other than the tinnitus frequency. A group of the noise-exposed rats with
> tinnitus received VNS that was paired with different tones surrounding the
> tinnitus frequency 300 times a day for about three weeks. Rats in the
> control group received VNS with no tones, tones with no VNS, or no therapy.
> For both groups, measurements were taken four weeks after noise exposure,
> then 10 days after therapy began, and one day, one week, and three weeks
> after therapy ended.
>
> Rats that received the VNS paired with tones showed promising results for
> each time point after therapy began, including midway through therapy,
> indicating that the ringing had stopped for the treated rats. Conversely,
> the data from control rats indicated their tinnitus had continued
> throughout
> the testing period. What's more, the researchers followed two treated and
> two control rats for an additional two months and found that the treated
> rats maintained this benefit for 3.5 months after noise exposure, while the
> controls continued to be impaired.
>
> The researchers also evaluated neural responses in the auditory cortex in
> these same rats and found that neurons in the treated rats had returned to
> their normal levels, where they remained. This indicated that the tinnitus
> had disappeared. However, the control group levels continued to be
> distorted, indicating that the tinnitus persisted. Overall, the researchers
> found that the VNS treatment paired with tones had not only reorganized the
> neurons to respond to their original frequencies, but it also made the
> brain
> responses sharper, decreased excitability, and decreased synchronization of
> auditory cortex neurons.
>
> "The key is that, unlike previous treatments, we're not masking the
> tinnitus, we're not hiding the tinnitus. We are retuning the brain from a
> state where it generates tinnitus to a state that does not generate
> tinnitus. We are eliminating the source of the tinnitus," said Dr. Kilgard.
>
> VNS is currently being used to treat roughly 50,000 people with epilepsy or
> depression, and MicroTransponder hopes to conduct clinical studies using
> VNS
> with paired tones in tinnitus patients.
>
> "The clinical protocol is being finalized now and a pilot study in tinnitus
> patients will be conducted in Europe in the near future," said Dr.
> Engineer,
> vice president of preclinical affairs at MicroTransponder. "The support of
> the NIDCD has been essential to allow our research team to continue our
> work
> in this important area of tinnitus research." MicroTransponder is a
> neuroscience-based medical device company that is working to develop
> treatments for a variety of neurological diseases, including tinnitus,
> chronic pain, and anxiety.
>
> In the meantime, the researchers are currently working to fine-tune the
> procedure to better understand such details as the most effective number of
> paired frequencies to use for treatment; how long the treatment should
> last;
> and whether the treatment would work equally well for new tinnitus cases in
> comparison to long-term cases.
>
> Other sponsors of the work include the James S. McDonnell Foundation, St.
> Louis, Mo.; Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program, Austin, Texas;
> Texas
> Emerging Technology Fund, Austin, Texas; and MicroTransponder, Inc.
>
> For more information about tinnitus, see
> <www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/tinnitus.htm>.
>
> NIDCD supports and conducts research and research training on the normal
> and
> disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and
> language and provides health information, based upon scientific discovery,
> to the public. For more information about NIDCD programs, see the Web site
> at <www.nidcd.nih.gov>.
>
> The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research
> Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S.
> Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency
> for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical
> research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
> common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,
> visit <www.nih.gov>.
>
> ##
>
> This NIH News Release is available online at:
> <http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jan2011/nidcd-12.htm>.
>
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