Scientists search for brain center responsible for tinnitus

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have received a $2.9 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the brain signals responsible for creating the phantom sounds of tinnitus--ringing, buzzing, or hissing in the ears that can range from annoying to debilitating. More than 50 million Americans experience the condition; 30 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans suffer from it. Richard Salvi and colleagues have already discovered that when the brain's auditory cortex begins receiving diminished neural signals from the cochlea (the hearing organ) due to injury or age, the auditory cortex "turns up the volume," increasing weak neural signals from the cochlea. The latter may be experienced as tinnitus. http://www.buffalo.edu/news/8880

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