A groundbreaking study by Mass Eye and Ear associates tinnitus with undetected auditory nerve damage, challenging previous beliefs and opening new paths for treatment through auditory nerve regeneration. A new study from Mass Eye and Ear investigators reveals that people who report tinnitus, whic
To be clear, we’ve known since forever that tinnitus can result from hearing loss. This is true of basically every sensory perception we have (ie, vision loss can create visual hallucinations, loss of smell can create the perception of foul odors, etc). The interesting thing this study is talking about, is there are many people with tinnitus who have apparently normal hearing on auditory testing and no other clear causes. They think they’ve found a novel kind of auditory nerve damage/dysfunction that can’t be detected by a typical hearing test.
How that is any kind of breakthrough that gets us closer to a cure mystifies me. It just says these previously unexplained cases can also now be explained by what was already known to be the major cause. Am I missing something?