![]() The present findings have implications for the management of tinnitus by offering a potential alternative to interventions using invasive electrical stimulation such as cochlear implantation, or other non-invasive transcranial electrical stimulation methods.Įlectric stimulation of the nervous system has generally taken two approaches for treating a variety of neurological disorders in humans. This increased efficiency is most likely due to the shortened distance between the electrode placed on the tympanic membrane and the targeted cochlea. Together, the previous and present results suggest that the efficiency of conventional scalp-based noninvasive electric stimulation can be improved by at least one order of magnitude via tympanic membrane stimulation. ![]() These findings extended previous work comparing evoked perception and tinnitus suppression between electrodes placed in the ear canal and on the scalp. Compared with ear canal stimulation, tympanic membrane stimulation doubled both the probability (22% vs. We further measured tinnitus suppression in 14 of the 25 subjects who had chronic tinnitus. Relative to ear canal stimulation, tympanic membrane stimulation was four times more likely to produce an auditory percept, required eight times lower electric current to reach the threshold and produced two-to-four times more linear suprathreshold responses. We placed an electrode in the ear canal or on the tympanic membrane in 25 human adults (10 females) and compared their stimulation efficiency by characterizing the electrically-evoked auditory sensation. We also tested the hypothesis that noninvasive electric stimulation of the cochlea may restore neural activities that are missing in acoustic stimulation. Here we chose the cochlea as a target because it resides in the densest bone of the skull and is adjacent to many deep-brain-stimulation structures. The tympanic membrane, or eardrum, is a thin flap of skin deep in an orifice of the head that may serve as a port for improved efficiency of noninvasive stimulation. ![]() While noninvasive brain stimulation is convenient and cost effective, its utility is limited by the substantial distance between scalp electrodes and their intended neural targets in the head. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |