Train your brain to overcome tinnitus

An international research team has shown that the debilitating impact of tinnitus can be effectively reduced in just weeks by a training course and sound therapy delivered via a smartphone app.

The team from Australian, New Zealand, French and Belgian universities report these findings today in Frontiers in Audiology and Otology.

The initial trial worked with 30 sufferers, of whom almost two thirds experienced a ‘clinically significant improvement’. The team are now planning larger trials in the UK in collaboration with the University College London Hospital.

Tinnitus is common, affecting up to one in four people. It is mostly experienced by older adults but can appear for children. For some, it goes away without intervention. For others, it can be debilitatingly lifechanging: affecting hearing, mood, concentration, sleep and in severe cases, causing anxiety or depression.

Unlike an alarm, tinnitus occurs when a person hears a sound in the head or ears, when there is no external sound source or risk presented in the environment, and yet the mind responds with a similar alert response.

The sound is perceived as an unpleasant, irritating, or intrusive noise that can't be switched off. The brain focuses on it insistently, further training our mind to pay even more attention even though there is no risk. This offers the pathway for patients. By training and actively giving the tinnitus less attention, the easier it becomes to tunes out.

MindEar aims to help people to practice focus through a training program, equipping the mind and body to suppress stress hormones and responses and thus reducing the brain’s focus on tinnitus.

Reference: Train your brain to overcome tinnitus; Frontiers in Audiology and Otology; DOI: 10.3389/fauot.2023.1302215