ATA-FUNDED RESEARCH SoundCure™ , an ATA Corporate Champion, was founded and developed to explore the early results
of some ATA-funded research and bring a tinnitus solution to patients. In 2008, ATA funded a tinnitus suppression grant to Fan-Gang Zeng, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Hearing Research at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The following success story begins with a tinnitus patient desperately seeking relief and ends with the introduction of a newly developed technology based on that work. The name of the patient has been changed to protect his privacy.
Michael’s Story
Musicians and music industry professionals rely on their ears for their work. So for Michael, a 46-year- old musician and audio engineer, an abrupt total loss of hearing and the simultaneous onset of severe tinnitus in one ear changed his life dramatically. His tinnitus sound- ed like a constant “shhhhh” noise combined with a high pitched squeal. He was soon unable to work or play his drums. He felt depressed, irritable, and hopeless, and
fuse with my tinnitus noise. It was low, calming, and peaceful and felt like long over- due therapy.” Dr. Zeng wondered if other tinnitus patients could also benefit from this approach.
ATA Grant Leads to Breakthrough
Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng (bottom left) and his research team at the University of California, Irvine.
had trouble sleeping. He tried everything possible to find relief without success. In 2007, as a last resort, Michael received a cochlear implant – but his tinnitus remained.
His surgeon referred him to Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Zeng and his team, taking cues from published literature, delivered a high frequency tone via the cochlear implant in an attempt to relieve Michael’s tinnitus, but this too failed. Months of frustrating trial and error ensued, with Dr. Zeng’s team conducting many unsuccessful sessions deliver- ing high-pitched tones through the implant. To every- one’s great surprise, when a low pitched modulated tone was applied, Michael’s tinnitus abated for the first time in years. He sat in the sound booth relishing the quiet, and wished there was something he could take home for continued relief. According to Michael, “It was a much friendlier sound and it seemed to
16 Tinnitus Today | Summer 2012
An ATA research grant allowed Dr. Zeng and Ph.D. candidates Jeff Carroll and Qing Tang to continue work in this area. “The National Institutes of
Health would never have funded me,” Dr. Zeng says. “They tend to fund more mature projects. I am grate- ful to the ATA for their support.”
White noise maskers, which have been used success- fully to treat tinnitus for some, often require volume levels higher than the patient’s tinnitus. Many patients do not feel that substituting one loud, constant sound for another is much of an improvement. “It’s a matter of which poison you want to choose,” says Dr. Zeng.
The UCI team realized a significant clinical break- through using “amplitude modulation.” The sounds are first customized to the patient’s unique tinnitus by doing a frequency pitch matching process. Then with this approach, the amplitude (loudness) of the tones is very rapidly modulated, or altered, so quickly that the listener cannot consciously detect the changes. Modulated tones seem to keep the brain’s interest more than constant tones. They can also be played
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