The research group of Associate Professor Hidehiko Okamoto and Professor Ryusuke Kakinoki of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institute of Natural Sciences, and Professor Kenichi Sekiya and Professor Shingo Murakami of Nagoya City University has been working on inhibitory nerves that suppress unnecessary neural activity in ears with ringing ears. I found that the activity was declining.It is expected to contribute to the elucidation of the onset mechanism of tinnitus and the establishment of an objective diagnostic method.
According to the National Institute of Natural Sciences, tinnitus is a very common disease, and the prevalence of tinnitus is reported to be around 10% in Japan.However, there are many unclear points about the mechanism of occurrence, and an objective diagnostic method has not been established.
The research group recorded the reaction of the brain at that time by listening to the sound of the same frequency as the tinnitus in a relaxed state such as watching a movie for a patient who can hear tinnitus from only one ear even though there is no difference in hearing. bottom.
At that time, when I asked them to distinguish the sound from the noise, it was found that the tinnitus ears had weaker brain activity than the inaudible ears.The neural activity of the inhibitory system plays an important role in distinguishing sounds by noise, but the research group believes that the function is weakened in tinnitus ears.
The research results were published in the American scientific journal "Journal of Neurophysiology".
