The treatment with filtered music at a glance

The treatment at a glance

Tinnitracks lets you set up your own music and use it to treat your tinnitus. This allows you to target the cause of tinnitus in the brain instead of simply managing symptoms with your therapy. This is possible by means of the brain's lifelong ability to adapt, also known as neuroplasticity. Researchers at the University of Muenster developed a clinically proven therapy for chronic tinnitus based on the latest scientific innovations in brain research. ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ ¹² ¹³

Tinnitus - Ringing in the brain

Tinnitus is often referred to as “ringing in the ears.” This suggests that tinnitus is a problem that primarily concerns the ears. Neuroscientific findings in tinnitus research show that although tinnitus is usually linked to hearing loss, the processes that are behind the development as well as sustained occurrence of tinnitus symptoms actually take place within the structures of the brain. ¹⁴ ¹⁵ Scientific knowledge of neuroplasticity in the brain, which is the basis for our ability to learn throughout our entire lives, has led to new therapeutic approaches in treating chronic tinnitus with music. ¹⁶ ¹⁷

The new therapeutic approach

Tinnitracks lets you treat your tinnitus with your own music. The modified tracks are used for neurophysiologic treatment. How can your music be used as tinnitus therapy?

The cause of tinnitus

Abnormal hyperactivity of nerve cells in the brain’s auditory cortex that directly correlates with the perceived loudness of the tinnitus sound is found in patients with subjective tinnitus. The greater the activity in these cells, the louder the tinnitus. ¹ ² ¹⁰

Tinnitus is often triggered by hearing loss such as sudden sensorineural hearing loss or noise-induced hearing loss. This type of hearing loss not only means a reduced ability to hear sounds in the frequency ranges in which damage has occurred, but also causes a reduced flow of information to the brain's auditory center. ¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶

This change in input can cause the brain to shift its healthy balance between excitatory and inhibitory nerve signals. This can lead to overactivity in certain nerve cells, which manifests itself as tinnitus.

Treating tinnitus with filtered music

Tinnitus can be treated by listening to music that has been specially filtered to remove certain frequencies. ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ ¹² ¹³ The music is filtered to remove the specific frequency that causes the patient's tinnitus. This creates an audible notch in the sound spectrum of your music. In other words, it slightly alters the sound. Your sense of hearing, however, is able to quickly adapt to this unfamiliar input.

This systematically changed input - generated by filtering your music based on your individual tinnitus frequency - can cause the brain to re-shift its imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory nerve signals in the auditory center back towards a healthy balance between the two.

The basic mechanism behind this is based on the specific configuration of nerve cells in the brain: The nerve cells in the brain's auditory center are arranged by the frequency they perceive. It can be likened to keys on a piano: The low tones are on one end, the high tones on the other.

This allows a mechanism known as lateral inhibition to kick in. Lateral inhibition is a natural property found in nerve cells that regulates the degree of contrasts: When a nerve cell is activated, lateral (from the side) inhibition reduces the activity of other neighboring cells. ¹⁸ ¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹

Scientific basis of Tinnitracks

The Tinnitracks solution is based on research in the fields of neurophysiology and neuroacoustics. Tinnitracks uses findings from neuroscientific studies performed at the Institute for Biosignal Analysis and Biomagnetism by the medical faculty of the University of Muenster. ¹ ² ³ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ ¹² ¹³

Placebo-controlled studies performed there showed that music that has had certain frequencies removed can be used to achieve a statistically significant reduction in the perceived loudness of tinnitus, in tinnitus activity in the nerve cells, and in the psychological strain tinnitus patients suffer.

Tinnitracks implements these findings into a contemporary application with modern information technology. This allows a large number of patients to benefit from this therapeutic approach founded on neuroscience.

The treatment at a glance

Therapy Basics

Tinnitus - Ringing in the brain

The new therapeutic approach

The cause of tinnitus

Treating tinnitus with filtered music

Recognize its therapeutic potential - Select your music

Patient profile

Scientific basis of Tinnitracks

Sources

Clinical studies and medical reviews

Neuroscientific research