[2025] Sound treatment for tinnitus

Tinnitus (also known as “ringing in the ears”) is when you experience ringing or other noises in one or both of your ears. The noise you hear when you have tinnitus isn't caused by an external sound, and other people usually can't hear it. It is a phantom sound. Tinnitus is a common problem. It affects about 15% to 20% of people, and is especially common in older adults. Based on the latest scientific insights, tinnitus is caused by changes in the brain pathways involved in the perception of a (phantom-sound) stimulus, the unpleasantness of this stimulus, and the capacity to suppress the stimulus. 

A 1/f or 1/f² sound structure is common in natural acoustic environments such as forests, rain, wind, as well as in human and non-human speech and music [1, 2]. It represents a balance between randomness and regularity, not as chaotic as white noise (which has equal power at all frequencies), and not as predictable as a sine wave. Human auditory perception is tuned to this 1/f distribution and 1/f noise appears more pleasant or easier to process than other types of noise [3].

Brain activity mimics the environmental 1/f structure, in that both structure and functional metrics of brain activity present as 1/f as well [4].

Tinnitus is commonly related to hearing loss, and presents at the same frequencies of the deafferentation, suggesting it fills in the missing frequencies [5, 6]. Electrophysiologically, this is reflected by a more flattened power spectrum [7, 8]. 

Notched sound therapy is capable of improving tinnitus, but only to a limited extent (10%) [9], yet filling up the hearing loss by increasing the spectral power of the hearing loss worsens tinnitus [10].

The brain predominantly learns during deep sleep and REM sleep. During deep sleep, novel items are entered into long term memory and during REM sleep integrated into the Bayesian model of the world, i.e. what is stored in long-term memory is generalized [11].

Concept: we combine these 3 neuroscientific concepts based on yet unpublished benefits from sound therapy serendipitously developed by the engineer David Case who combined 1/f noise with notched sound. The sound presented at the ear with David Case sound treatment demonstrates some kind of 1/f pattern with a generic notch that is compensated by spectral peaks.

Goal: optimize the development of sound treatment by combining the 1/f structure and notched sound therapy. 

1. Jermyn – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28444-z

2. Keshner – https://antena.fe.uni-lj.si/literatura/Razno/SRK2016/priprava/sum1f/Keshner%201982.pdf

3. Nelias – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53155-y

4. Buzsáki – https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3687

5. Norena – https://doi.org/10.1159/000066156

6. De Ridder – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.03.021

7. Vanneste – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-02820-0

8. To – https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.11.024

9. Okamoto – https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0911268107

10. Vanneste – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2012.10.003

11. Rasch – https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012

Assignment

1.       Literature study on (neuro-)technology for the treatment of tinnitus;

2.       Develop a program of requirements in close collaboration with a world-leading tinnitus expert;

3.       Develop/choose a sound processing platform that allows for correction of audio frequency spectra;

4.       Develop strategies for adjusting the frequency spectrum curvature (automatically) to a predefined frequency spectrum based on the patient’s audiogram and clinical preferences;

5.       (Tentative) Develop strategies for adjusting the frequency spectrum curvature automatically to maximum patient outcome based on relevant biomarkers and patient input(s)

Requirements

MSc Biomedical Engineering, with interests and preferably experience in signal processing, audio, GUI, programming, etc. 

Contact

Last modified: 2025-05-16