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Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

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Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#201
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I can “play my eardrums”, which I describe as the ability to consciously control something in my ears that causes a loud fluttering, ringing sound that is something like wind entering my ear canals combined with a bell. After some research I’ve found some people can control something called the “tensor tympani” and generate sounds described as a “roar” but being a subjective experience I am not certain t…

I'm not sure if it's the same, but if I listen to pure noise (to sleep or something) I can somewhat adjust my hearing to focus on certain frequency bands in the uniform noise making me to hear a ringing sound in the noise. I can adjust the pitch and it will stay at the pitch until I change it. So with this I can play a melody with the ringing noise. Sometimes I do this until I fall asleep. :-)

Not the same thing at all. Try squeezing your eyelids really tight, you might hear a noise. That's what he's talking about.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#202
This has been highly-variable for me over the years. I have noticed changes with with caffeine intake and exercise.

On many occasions I've felt my ears "pop" after an extensive cardio session. The result feels like I just took really weak earplugs out. Rowing is more prone to do this than other forms of exercise in my experience.

I've also noticed that if I force myself to sit in total silence and remain as calm as possible, whatever ringing I can hear will start to diminish to ~imperceptible within a few minutes. When I'm on edge and anxious, the opposite appears to be true.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#203
post #97

I don’t know if this is a clue, but I can do muscle movements in my head/face/jaw to make the tinnitus worse (only as I make the movements, immediately reverting back to “normal” tinnitus as soon as I relax). Some examples: - jutting my jaw forwards - moving my ears back with my face muscles - pushing downward on the top of my head with my hands Another possible clue: this has been true since I can remember — even as…

Interesting. I can “play my eardrums”, which I describe as the ability to consciously control something in my ears that causes a loud fluttering, ringing sound that is something like wind entering my ear canals combined with a bell. After some research I’ve found some people can control something called the “tensor tympani” and generate sounds described as a “roar” but being a subjective experience I am not certain t…

I went from, "What's this guy even talking about?" straight to inducing roaring after vaguely recall doing it as a child over 30 years ago.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#204
post #143
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto! Very useful for relieving ear pressure at altitude.

Yeah, I also use it for that. I've asked people the question, "can you click your ears"? Of course, they don't understand me, because it's such a vague question. I started asking, "can you relieve your ear pressure without moving anything else", and most people answer no. One person who dived, answered "yes, of course!" like it's something all people can.

I can do that, as well, and it has a practical purpose when going hiking in the mountains or scuba diving. But nobody I've talked to about it understand what I mean, and I can't even explain what the technique is; I'm tensing of some muscles, certainly, but I can't explain how and which ones they are.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#205

I don’t know if this is a clue, but I can do muscle movements in my head/face/jaw to make the tinnitus worse (only as I make the movements, immediately reverting back to “normal” tinnitus as soon as I relax). Some examples: - jutting my jaw forwards - moving my ears back with my face muscles - pushing downward on the top of my head with my hands Another possible clue: this has been true since I can remember — even as…

Very relatable. Have always been able to do this.

I have quite significant hearing loss these days, which has been tied back to having Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, relating to connective tissue development, which in part could impact areas that result in certain types of tinnitus developing.

Worse thing about tinnitus and hearing loss is that the more your hearing goes, the louder the tinnitus gets. Haven't heard proper silence in over a decade. Bit of a nightmare sometimes!

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The frequency response of a healthy ear isn't flat across all audible frequencies, so you'd need to reference normal hearing to determine the extent of damage rather than just looking at minimum audible db at various frequencies. >I am not sure I can inverse filter the tinnitus-related noise since it is random intensity though a notch filter could be an option since it is narrow band. Are you talking about basically…

>The frequency response of a healthy ear isn't flat across all audible frequencies, so you'd need to reference normal hearing... Isn't the normal frequency response of a healthy ear dependent on the shape of the ear cartilage and the configuration of the ear canal and the ear drum? It would be different for every individual. Kinda like how Mom could always hear everything we did and said after bedtime while Dad, with…

>Isn't the normal frequency response of a healthy ear dependent on the shape of the ear cartilage and the configuration of the ear canal and the ear drum? It would be different for every individual

Yes, there's some individual variation, but human ears are all generally roughly the same structure, so there are known baselines for how they work. There's about 40 dB difference in minimum audible threshold between 50 Hz and 5 kHz. Same with near the top end of the hearing range, though where exactly that lies is more subject to individual variation (and age)

>so it is not easily quantifiable therefore the inverse operator will not be exact, optimum, or anything else. However, if you can model the signal then you should be able to design the inverse operator.

It's not originating from actual sound, so I think the approach fundamentally doesn't apply. Active noise canceling relies on destructive interference to actually physically remove the sound before it is perceived. Once you have the nerve signal, I think there simply isn't an anti-sound that would result in some other nerve signal that adds up to perceived silence.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#207
post #136
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I can “play my eardrums”, which I describe as the ability to consciously control something in my ears that causes a loud fluttering, ringing sound that is something like wind entering my ear canals combined with a bell. After some research I’ve found some people can control something called the “tensor tympani” and generate sounds described as a “roar” but being a subjective experience I am not certain t…

Ditto! Very useful for relieving ear pressure at altitude.

I think it's two different things. When using it to equalize ears hands free, it's the tensor veli palatini (tvp) you're contracting to open the eustachian tube.

Of course, one might not be able to distinguish what muscles one is contracting, so it might be that most people actually tense both the tvp and the tympani at the same time, getting both the roaring sound from the tympani and the clicking sound from the tvp when the tubes open. Hence it's two different, but connected, things.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#208
post #77
post #67

I've had Tinnitus since I was 14 (when I went to a concert and stood in front of the speakers). A couple of pieces of advice to people who might be struggling with their tinnitus: 1. You need to learn to cope with it - once you're used to it, it will mostly fade into the background and be manageable. Accepting that it'll never be silent again was very difficult, but that's the only thing hat helped me feel better in…

Is tinnitus really just "freaker by the speaker" syndrome?

Prolonged exposure to loud sounds, short extremely loud sounds (explosions), ototoxic drugs (some antibiotics, chemo..) and substances (toluene..) and viral infections that spread into inner ear can all cause cochlear damage and therefore tinnitus.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine reminds me of the high-pitched sound made by old, tube TVs. I think it was called the flyback transformer. 16Khz.

That reminds me of the old crt tv my parents had for ages in their room that i could hear from the other side of the house but they couldn't that made the most awful high pitch whine. and as the screen would go black in some sort of sleep mode but it kept making that horrible noise with the only indicator that is was on still other than the noise, that apparently only i and dogs could hear, was the color of a small d…

For what it's worth, I had that and pretty all my friends I bothered to ask could also hear old TVs back when were kids. It is exceedingly common.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the same thing, but it would allow them to > "[...] relieve your ear pressure without moving anything else"

And I just realized that I meant the Frenzel Maneuver, which I always forget the name of. OK you need a nose clip, but besides that it's hands free. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenzel_maneuver

Frenzel is not done by controlling the muscles in the ear. It's done by controlling your epiglottis and your tongue and push air against a blocked nose. So while it's hands free, it's not the same.[1]

With controlling the muscles in the ear, one can do it without a nose clip. It's called BTV (or VTO sometimes in English)[2], and instead of forcing air in to open the eustachian tube, you just open it by muscles.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_clearing [2]: https://www.freedivinginstructors.com/article/204

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