Promising Results in Controlling Tinnitus with Brain Training

I had the great pleasure of visiting a wonderful research team studying the neurological origins and treatment of tinnitus at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis last week. About 30 million U.S. citizens have tinnitus. For about 4 million of them, the tinnitus is identified as “severe” – which means that it is continuously disturbing and intrusive, makes normal sleep very difficult or impossible, has extended cognitive impacts, and grossly degrades the sufferer’s quality of life. Dr. Jay Piccirillo and Dr. Harold Burton have conducted very important studies in tinnitus patients in their Wash U laboratories. After documenting the tinnitus and the neurological differences between normal individuals and patients with more tolerable (“mild”) or intolerable (“severe”) tinnitus, they sent 20 patients to the ‘brain gym’ to be trained in more accurate listening using Posit Science’s Brain Fitness Program. 16 patients had the stick-to-it-ness to complete the program. 13 of those individuals (more than 80%) had substantial relief from their tinnitus. I met with four of those patients in St. Louis on Friday. They all told the same story. Their tinnitus had been seriously degrading their quality of life. Two were “severe” suffers. Their tinnitus was continuously annoying and destructive, and with them all through their waking hours. They were perpetually tired and disconnected because they could only sleep when they reached a state of ex...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - Category: Neurologists Authors: Tags: Brain Fitness Brain Fitness Program Brain Plasticity Brain Science BrainHQ Neuroscience Posit Science Source Type: blogs