Dr. Winfried Schlee, Regensburg
Video 15 2017
“Notch or no notch: On the treatment of chronic tinnitus using notched auditory stimulation”/h3>
Subjective tinnitus is the conscious auditory perception of a tone, hissing, or noise without a physical sound source. Over 70 million Europeans are affected by tinnitus. Between 5 and 20 percent of Europeans report hearing a subjective tinnitus. About 1 to 2 percent are severely affected, suffering from sleeping disorders, depression, concentration difficulties, or anxiety disorders because of their tinnitus.
Notched Auditory Stimulation is a new method for the treatment of tinnitus. Using this method, the individual tinnitus frequency is filtered out of the frequency spectrum and this filtered signal is then repeatedly presented to the tinnitus patient. The aim of the treatment is to suppress the tinnitus by taking advantage of lateral inhibition effects. Repeated stimulation is to induce plastic reorganisation within the cortex, and lead to continuous suppression of tinnitus.
In this talk, I shall first introduce the theoretical concept of notched auditory stimulation together with the underlying neuropsychological mechanisms. Possible application scenarios such as Tailor-Made Notched Music Therapy or Tinnitus Notch Therapy will be discussed and empirical results presented. Furthermore, I will contrast Notched Auditory Stimulation with the treatment based on conventional hearing aids.