Toward An Exploration of Habituating to Tinnitus: Perspectives on Sensory Gating

Abstract

Some tinnitus participants habituate to their tinnitus, but some others do not and complain of its annoyance so much. It has been suggested that tinnitus is a habituation deficit. Habituation and the ability to ignore a sensory input depend on the normal function of filtering mechanism of sensory gating.The purpose of this study was to compare behavioral aspects of sensory gating in normal and tinnitus participants to search for the reason why some tinnitus participants habituate to their tinnitus but some others do not.This investigation was an observational case–control study.There were 60 tinnitus participants who were categorized into two tinnitus groups (30 compensated tinnitus participants and 30 decompensated tinnitus participants) based on the complaint of tinnitus annoyance, visual analog scale (VAS) for tinnitus loudness, annoyance, and awareness, scores on Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). Also, there were 30 normal hearing participants without tinnitus as the normal control group.Sensory Gating Inventory (SGI), TQ, THI, and VAS was obtained from all participants. THI, TQ, VAS, and SGI total scores and their factors were compared among the groups. Correlations between SGI scores with THI, TQ, and VAS score were calculated.The results showed that SGI total score and the scores of its four factors were significantly higher in decompensated tinnitus participants compared with compensated tinnitus participants and normal controls. Also, there was a positive correlation between SGI perceptual modulation factor and TQ emotional distress factor and with the VAS for loudness in decompensated tinnitus group.These results suggested that tinnitus associated with behavioral aspects of sensory gating and decompensated tinnitus may be a result of deficient sensory gating.

Symptom networks analysis among people with Meniere’s disease: Application for nursing care

“…The possible reason was that some patients became habituated to their tinnitus gradually and did not complain regarding any disturbance, a condition called compensated tinnitus [ 36 ]. This result was in line with that of previous study showing that some patients can adapt to tinnitus, especially those with a long disease duration [ 37 ]. Therefore, tinnitus in these patients no longer seriously affects their daily life and did not interact with other symptoms.…”

The role of tinnitus distress in the development of somatization symptoms among patients: implications for health care in Pakistan

“…Psychophysiological features of tinnitus such as the pitch and loudness are not greatly projective of its psychological consequence (Durai et al , 2018; Mohebbi et al , 2019). However, the cognitive aspect plays a crucial role among tinnitus patients that may be precisely explained as a somatopsychic phenomenon (McKenna et al , 2020; Elzer et al , 2018), a bodily disruption that can have components of preoccupation and apprehensions, thus contributing in the functional difficulties of a patient to concentrate and perform normal tasks (Fetoni et al , 2021).…”