Variability in Matches to Subjective Tinnitus

Abstract

For patients with noise-induce sensorineural hearing loss, the results of matching a binaurally presented comparison tone to subjective tinnitus during a 20-days test period are reported. As a control, results of matching an external comparison tom, to a standard tone. are also presented. The variability for tinnitus measurements was extremely large relative to comparable measures for a objective stimuli The relevance of this finding to the nature of tinnitus and to the construction of tinnitus maskers is discussed.

Acoustic stimulation treatments against tinnitus could be most effective when tinnitus pitch is within the stimulated frequency range

“…Tinnitus pitch matching to pure tones can yield variable results (Penner, 1983;Burns, 1984;Henry, 2004) as tinnitus sensations are often complex sounds, and the variability can also depend on the measurement method (Tyler and Conrad-Armes, 1983). The pitch-matching procedure used in our study required subjects to compare the dominant pitch of the tinnitus sensation to a set of pure tones or narrow-band noises and choose the closest match.…”

Psychoacoustic Characterization of the Tinnitus Spectrum: Implications for the Underlying Mechanisms of Tinnitus

“…Indeed, if as indicated by the present results, the tinnitus spectra are in most cases very broad, is the use of pure tones as comparison stimuli appropriate in the first place? Almost all studies devoted to the psychometric measurement of tinnitus characteristics so far have used matching or comparison procedures with pure tones in order to estimate the pitch or timbre of tinnitus [Burns, 1984;Goodwin and Johnson, 1980;Graham and Newby, 1962;Penner, 1983;Penner and Bilger, 1992;Tyler and Conrad-Armes, 1983]. While not necessarily supported by the assumption that the pitch or timbre of tinnitus is generally similar to that evoked by a pure tone, the use of pure tones presents several practical advantages over that of complex tones or noise bands.…”

“…Therefore, a reasonable agreement between the tinnitus and comparison tone pitch may be reached. However, the fact that the peaks of tinnitus spectra are broad may explain that pitch matches between a pure tone and the tinnitus are in general highly variable over time within subjects [Burns, 1984;Norton et al, 1990;Penner, 1983;Tyler and ConradArmes, 1983]. For example, it is likely that if one had tried to estimate a predominant pitch for tinnitus using pure-tone matching in our subject 9, who judged tones with frequencies over the 6-to 10-kHz range to contribute equally most to the overall tinnitus spectrum, the resulting estimates might have largely varied from time to time.…”

“…Furthermore, in general, tinnitus pitch has been estimated very grossly by having subjects adjust the frequency of a pure tone so that its pitch matched as closely as possible the predominant pitch of the tinnitus [Meikle and Griest, 1991;Henry et al, 1999]. Tinnitus pitch measured in this way has been shown to be in general highly variable across sessions within the same subject [Penner, 1983;Tyler and Conrad-Armes, 1983;Burns, 1984;Norton et al, 1990]. It has been suggested that this variability was related to the fact that tinnitus does not in general have as unitary and conspicuous a pitch as that of a pure tone but contains several components which the subject may consider as the predominant component to which the pure tone must be matched [Penner, 1993].…”

Computer-automated tinnitus assessment using patient control

“…The data also indicate that repeating the five pitch matches over two sessions results in an average range of 1 1/3 octaves. Most previous studies of tinnitus pitch-match reliability have generally ranged over several octaves [29][30][31][32]. Clearly, all of these studies cannot be directly compared because of substantial methodological differences.…”