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Tinnitus,
a near constant ringing or buzzing in the ears, affects
50 million people in the United States alone.
It can cause depression,
anxiety, sleep disruption and other problems. The annoying ringing in
the ears that marks tinnitus could be
linked to the eyes as well as to the ears.
It could be a simple problem of miscommunication in
the brain.
This is the first research to show that a failure
of the complicated way our brain systems talk to each other contributes
to the cause of tinnitus.
The researchers studied eight patients who had gaze-evoked
tinnitus (GET), in which the loudness and pitch of this buzzing increase
when a patient looks to the side.
GET sometimes develops after surgery to remove tumors
of the auditory nerve.
Normally, the visual and auditory parts of the brain
communicate with each other to determine which one gets priority. Looking
to the side, or lateral gaze, should suppress
auditory brain activity.
But in GET patients this
does not happen. The researchers think this
failure of one sensory system to suppress another may be an important
feature of tinnitus.
Neurology March 2001
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