TinnitusTrainer at Mac App Store analyse

Important: For proper use of Tinnitus Trainer, your iPhone, iPad, iPod needs to have auto-lock set to never. The app is unable to work properly in background because of some restrictions Apple made to their Framework. How does it work? Today, there are still not many treatments for tinnitus that are non-invasive and without medication. Retraining therapy and Tinnitus Masker are often used, but unfortunately with limited success. The Tinnitus Trainer is breaking new ground, based on recent insights from neuroscience. Particular changes of activity patterns in parts of the brain, the primary auditory cortex, leads likely to the occurence of a chronic, tonal tinnitus sensation. These sensation occurs without any external stimuli. The primary auditory cortex is the the place where signals from the inner ear (cochlea) are received. A particular property of this part of the brain is its so-called tonotopic organisation. Meaning that different frequencies are represented in different areas of the auditory cortex. It is assumed that the tinnitus sensation occurs with a particular kind of activity or overactivity in these areas that are usually associated with the tinnitus frequency. The perceived tinnitus frequency thus corresponds to changed activity patterns in these area of the primary auditory cortex, that are usually involved with processing this frequency. Such a change can occur after hearing loss, e.g. after demage to the inner ear. Acustic signal of a certain frequency are not transmitted anymore to their associated areas in the primary auditory cortex. These areas can develop might then develop an autonomous activity. And this activity likely leads to the tinnitus sensation. After 12 months of continued sensation, one speaks of chronic tinnitus. Meaning that the brain learned these autonomous activity patterns and they are stable enough not to change anymore spontaneously. This is where the Tinnitus Trainer comes into play. By estimating the individual tinnitus frequency (the frequency band to be more precise), one can estimate the area in the primary auditory cortex with the "wrong" activity. The Tinnitus Trainer generates specific sequences of sounds around this frequency band. These sounds constitute the training. Subsequently, the areas in the primary auditory cortex are stimulated or activated, that lie close to the areas with superfluous tinnitus activity. After a certain amount of training, the wrong headed areas will get smaller. This is to be understood not in a literal sense, as reduction of actual brain tissue, but as a change of the activity patterns occuring in these areas. They are then related more to the sound sequences one actually listens to. This property is called plasticity in jargon. The change in the activity is correlated with a reduction of the loudness of the tinnitus sensation, until it vanishes completely in the optimal case. For more in-depth information, we recommend to read the relevant professional literature.