Tinnitus is a condition in which a person’s hearing is affected by a ringing or noise due to an underlying cause from events such as cochlear damage, circulatory disorder or age. Persons afflicted with tinnitus may hear a constant noise disturbance throughout their day while other may only hear is off and on in various time expanses. The pathophysiological mechanism for this condition is not yet known and Moon et al. conducted a study to try and lay a roadmap to where the tinnitus symptoms may stem from. In being able to establish a pathway for damage done to the auditory system future researchers may be able to come up with procedures and implants that may rid tinnitus patients of their affliction improving their quality of daily life. The
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The test evaluated spectral-ripple discrimination where researchers varied ripples per octave in equal ratios with adaptive manner and reversals (Moon et al., 2015). The mean of three adaptive runs were used to find the mean score for each participant. The TMD test was conducted by using modulated frequencies at 10Hz and 100Hz using a 2-interval, 2-Afc paradigm (Moon et al., 2015). Participants were asked to identify gaps between auditory stimuli and the last 10 reversals of the test were used to find the participant 's mean for spectral discrimination. The SPD test asked participants to distinguish a reference auditory stimuli from other auditory stimuli. Each test run consisted of playing the reference stimuli 24 times in random assortment throughout the test. Again the mean of three test runs were used to calculate participants ability for the test. Lastly the SRT test used noise to mask the comprehension of spondee words as they were said to participants. Like all previous tests 2 dB intervals were used in increasing and decreasing random order with the last six reversals being scored and the mean of three runs used to calculate scores. No spondee words were repeated and for participants with hearing loss MCL levels were used. By using a number of different tests conducted in the …show more content…
The researchers believe that cochlear damage triggers the perception of tinnitus. They do not state that cochlear damage is the cause or is proven to be the cause, yet it is believed to be the cause. The researchers assume that data gathered by other researchers were done in correct and unbiased manners to show legitimate results in which they used to further progress their understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms that might be at play in a person afflicted with tinnitus. This is not uncommon as research has foundations of similar research beneath that help propel itself forward in the search for concrete answers to the questions being asked. This research is taking assumptions from previous cochlear research as well as the research conducted by the researchers who came up with the tests being used in their study as they had all been previously used. The other assumption they make in their abstract is that outer hair cells may not play a significant role in tinnitus instead that the central auditory system due to plastic changes are the cause for tinnitus and non-tinnitus sufferers. These all affect the design of the testing as these variables are either unknown or data with correlation but no causation as to why tinnitus is perceived by the
The test evaluated spectral-ripple discrimination where researchers varied ripples per octave in equal ratios with adaptive manner and reversals (Moon et al., 2015). The mean of three adaptive runs were used to find the mean score for each participant. The TMD test was conducted by using modulated frequencies at 10Hz and 100Hz using a 2-interval, 2-Afc paradigm (Moon et al., 2015). Participants were asked to identify gaps between auditory stimuli and the last 10 reversals of the test were used to find the participant 's mean for spectral discrimination. The SPD test asked participants to distinguish a reference auditory stimuli from other auditory stimuli. Each test run consisted of playing the reference stimuli 24 times in random assortment throughout the test. Again the mean of three test runs were used to calculate participants ability for the test. Lastly the SRT test used noise to mask the comprehension of spondee words as they were said to participants. Like all previous tests 2 dB intervals were used in increasing and decreasing random order with the last six reversals being scored and the mean of three runs used to calculate scores. No spondee words were repeated and for participants with hearing loss MCL levels were used. By using a number of different tests conducted in the …show more content…
The researchers believe that cochlear damage triggers the perception of tinnitus. They do not state that cochlear damage is the cause or is proven to be the cause, yet it is believed to be the cause. The researchers assume that data gathered by other researchers were done in correct and unbiased manners to show legitimate results in which they used to further progress their understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms that might be at play in a person afflicted with tinnitus. This is not uncommon as research has foundations of similar research beneath that help propel itself forward in the search for concrete answers to the questions being asked. This research is taking assumptions from previous cochlear research as well as the research conducted by the researchers who came up with the tests being used in their study as they had all been previously used. The other assumption they make in their abstract is that outer hair cells may not play a significant role in tinnitus instead that the central auditory system due to plastic changes are the cause for tinnitus and non-tinnitus sufferers. These all affect the design of the testing as these variables are either unknown or data with correlation but no causation as to why tinnitus is perceived by the