05 - TRT | Universität Tübingen

TRT Brazil (2023-2024)

Is Tinnitus as a disturbing hearing disorder caused by the loss of cognitive feedback control?

Tinnitus is the perception of phantom sounds. It affects 10-15% of the general population and there is no effective treatment in sight. The quality of life can be severely restricted, even leading to neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. It has been proven that individual processing pathways in the brain are involved in tinnitus, including peripheral and central structures of the auditory pathway, but also brain regions for attention and emotions. We are convinced that tinnitus has its origins in the pathophysiology following the loss of specialized nerves in our auditory organ (cochlea) and the subsequent malfunction of brain circuits.

We examine patients and normal-hearing persons to find out how brain activation changes during hearing (bottom-up, from the cochlea to the brain, University of Tübingen) and how tinnitus perception changes through attention and emotional reactions (top-down, from the brain to the sensory organ, University of Chile).

The collaboration is supported by students at both locations.

Researchers

Prof. Dr. Marlies Knipper, Section head of Molecular Physiology of Hearing, Tübingen Hearing Research Centre (THRC), University of Tübingen, Tübingen (Germany).

Prof. Dr. Lukas Rüttiger, Senior Scientist at the Centre for Neurosensory Science in the Section Molecular Physiology of Hearing, Tübingen Hearing Research Centre (THCR), University of Tübingen, Tübingen (Germany).

Prof. Dr. med. Paul H. Délano (Ph D), Department of Otolaryngology and Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Chile, Santiago (Chile).

Cand. Ph D Rodrigo Andres Donoso-San Martin, Doctoral student at the Department of Otolaryngology and Neurosciences, Medical Faculty, University of Chile, Santiago (Chile), and at the Hearing Research Centre (THRC), Tübingen (Germany).

Lukas Rüttiger was also able to discuss the fundamental questions of the new approach to tinnitus research with colleagues at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Otolarnygology (MidWinter Meeting of the ARO) in Anaheim CA, USA, with the support of the TRT programme.

_{Prof. Dr. Lukas Rüttiger}
_{(Project manager at TRT Tübingen/Chile)}

Based on the initial results from the TRT-funded collaboration, Marlies Knipper and Lukas Rüttiger have applied for funding for a follow-up project. If the application is successful, it will be possible to continue the collaboration.

_{Prof. Dr. Marlies Knipper}
_{(Section Head of Molecular Physiology of Hearing and}
_{Project Manager of the OPM-MEG Tinnitus Project).}

Rodrigo Donoso (left) and Paul Delano (right) visiting the measuring chambers of the OPM-MEG in Tübingen.

Rodrigo Andres Donoso-San Martin is a doctoral student at the University of Chile. Since January 2023, he has been collecting scientific data for his doctoral thesis in Tübingen using the newly established method of OPM-MEG technology for the localization of acoustically stimulated brain oscillations in normal hearing subjects and tinnitus patients. Rodrigo Donoso has also been able to present initial research results at national and international conferences thanks to the support of the TRT. Thanks to the contacts he was able to make at the conferences, he now has an excellent network in the scientific community of tinnitus research and MEG technology.

Paul H. Delano was in Tübingen for scientific exchange and advice on the latest research results. He presented the contributions of the University of Chile in a public lecture (Highlight Seminar Series of the Centre for Neurosensory Science on 7 November 2024).

Conference Contributions

Preliminary results of the cooperation project have already been presented at several national and international scientific conferences:

July, 2024
Salzburg Mind Brain Annual Meeting 2024
Poster (R.Donoso): Identification of feedforward/feedback contributions to age-dependent hearing loss and tinnitus using OPM-MEG

September, 2024
Tübingen Systems Neuroscience Symposium 2024
Poster (R.Donoso): OPM-MEG Auditory Evoked Responses in Control and Tinnitus subjects

March, 2025
16th Göttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society
Poster (R.Donoso): Use of OPM-MEG for auditory research

June, 2025
Psychologie und Gehirn 50th Annual Conference, Würzburg
Oral presentation (R.Donoso): Use of OPM-MEG for Auditory Research

Planned and future activities:

September, 2025
IEB: Inner Ear Biology Workshop, Tübingen
Oral presentation: Use of OPM-MEG for auditory processing and cognition-related hearing disorders

October, 2025
2nd International Conference on Pharmacology & Gene Therapy for Tinnitus (Online/Remote)

Lecture: How the Brain Connects with the Ear: Corticofugal Oscillatory Modulation of Cochlear Responses
7 November 2024

Prof. Dr. Paul H. Delano (right) and Rodrigo Donoso (left) in front of the artistic representation of our hearing organ in the foyer of the ENT lecture hall, where Paul Delano gave a public lecture on 7.11.24.

More information!