Re: Treating subjective tinnitus with cortical remapping? (Liz Elliott )


Subject: Re: Treating subjective tinnitus with cortical remapping?
From:    Liz Elliott  <liz.elliott@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:28:23 +0100
List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>

Margaret, I believe what you describe is currently achieved - in some cases at least - by providing an enriched auditory environment via an appropriately programmed digital hearing aid. Cochlear damage implies hearing loss, so you would need to identify and compensate for this before any type of pc or iphone app would be of benefit (Although I suppose you could compensate for the hearing loss within the app, but that would require the use of calibrated equipment, as would locating the tinnitus frequency if you took a frequency matching approach). There are already some pc-based auditory training packages available (see LACE, eArena, etc), that are designed to help new hearing aid users 'retrain' their auditory brain. Essentially they just provide the user with some structured listening practice. I'm not sure of their efficacy. As for the expert you mention, some might argue that "the interface of hearing and psychology, with computer-aided-therapy" is a fair description of modern audiology ;) but more specifically someone trained in tinnitus therapy or hearing therapy might carry out that sort of work. Kind regards Liz Elliott


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