![]() With increasing HL over time, the capability of speech discrimination is affected, generating difficulties in everyday life communication ( 9). Probably, the most common cause for sensorineural hearing impairments is noise-induced HL (NIHL), which can lead to a number of secondary symptoms like tinnitus, depression ( 7), or hyperacusis ( 8). Of course patients can also suffer from a combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss (HL), either with unilateral or bilateral impairments. ![]() Hearing disorders may have their origin in outer or middle ear, causing conductive hearing loss (CHL), or sensorineural structures (starting in the cochlea and including all structures along the auditory pathway), causing sensorineural hearing impairments. Consequently, the cause for hearing impairment may be located within different anatomical structures. In general, factors leading to this high prevalence of hearing impairments are diverse. Studies in the United States revealed about 9% of the general population being affected by hearing deficits in 2000 ( 3)-with an overrepresentation of 15% in children ( 4)-and an increase of cases over 10 years when assessed with more advanced testing procedures ( 5). The fact that our western societies face increasing noise exposure in daily routine, work, and spare time adds to the problem and results in continuously increasing numbers of people suffering from hearing impairments. Consequently, hearing impairment pose serious problems for the people’s daily life, which in most severe cases may lead to social isolation, depression, and suicide ( 1, 2). Hearing is crucial for audio-verbal communication in humans and by that essential for social interactions. We propose a general model of changed hearing thresholds in T patients, being either decreased or increased compared to NT patients. This neuronal noise may induce changes in the auditory pathway and finally-as a side effect of threshold improvement-lead to the development of a tinnitus percept. We hypothesize that the physiological mechanism of stochastic resonance counteracts HL by adding neuronal noise to the system. ![]() The results of this study may point to a biologically plausible functional benefit on hearing thresholds in HL tinnitus patients. In speech audiometry, only CHL patients with high-pitched tinnitus showed lower thresholds compared to NT patients’ thresholds. Furthermore, lower thresholds were more often found in CHL patients and could rarely be detected in SHL patients. In adult patients, differences were more heterogeneous: hearing thresholds in T patients were lower in low frequency ranges, while they were higher at high frequencies. In young patients, we generally found lower hearing thresholds in T compared to NT patients. The results of the pure tone audiometry comparisons showed significant differences in T patients compared to NT patients. Overall data from 37,661 patients with sensorineural (SHL) or conductive HL (CHL) with (T, 9.5%) or without (NT, 90.5%) a tinnitus percept in different age groups and with different tinnitus pitches were included in this study. ![]() To this end, we conducted a retrospective study on anonymized pure tone and speech audiometric data from patients of the ENT hospital Erlangen in which we compare audiometric data between patients with and without tinnitus. Here, we investigate the relationship between hearing deficits and tinnitus. Human hearing loss (HL) and comorbidities like tinnitus pose serious problems for people’s daily life, which in most severe cases may lead to social isolation, depression, and suicide. 3Audiology, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany.2Department of Physics, Center for Medical Physics and Technology, Biophysics Group, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany.1Experimental Otolaryngology, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany. ![]()
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