Visualizing tinnitus with EEG.

Tinnitus is often defined as the perception of a tone without the presence of
an external stimulus. About 10% of the western adult population suffers from
tinnitus and in about 1% of the population the tinnitus strongly affects their
life. Neuromodulation is a promising treatment for tinnitus, but is not used in
the Netherlands so far. In order for neuromodulation to be successful it should
be clear in what brain regions the tinnitus is generated and what the activity
in those regions is. However, the pathophysiology of tinnitus is still greatly
unknown. Therefore, in this study the activity in brain areas that are
suspected to generate the tinnitus sound will be visualized with EEG. The focus
with the EEG measurements will be on the auditory cortex.

Primary objective of the study:
To find out which areas in the brain play a part in the maintenance of
tinnitus, and what the roles of those areas are. This will be done using the
AEP response in EEG recordings.

Secundary objectives of the study:
1. To find out if there are changes in the parameters of the AEP components in
the EEG recordings in tinnitus patients.
2. To assess the theoretical potential of neuromodulation as a therapy for
tinnitus.

This is a case-control observational study comparing processing of sound in
tinnitus patients with normal hearing subjects and with hearing impaired
non-tinnitus subjects.

Participating subjects are asked to fill out two questionnaires which will take
about 15 minutes. Furthermore they are asked to travel to the Clinical
Neurophysiology department of the Medisch Spectrum Twente once. There they will
undergo an EEG scan with a duration of about 25 minutes. The total duration of
the study for each participating subject will be 1 hour (including preparation
time). There is no individual benefit for the subjects participating in the
study.
There are no risks associated with the study, nor are there any harmful aspects
with respect to participating.