Tinnitus with a normal audiogram: Relation to noise exposure but no evidence for cochlear synaptopathy.

ABSTRACT: In rodents, exposure to high-level noise can destroy synapses between inner hair cells and auditory nerve fibers, without causing hair cell loss or permanent threshold elevation. Such "cochlear synaptopathy" is associated with amplitude reductions in wave I of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) at moderate-to-high sound levels. Similar ABR results have been reported in humans with tinnitus and normal audiometric thresholds, leading to the suggestion that tinnitus in these cases might be a consequence of synaptopathy. However, the ABR is an indirect measure of synaptopathy and it is unclear whether the results in humans reflect the same mechanisms demonstrated in rodents. Measures of noise exposure were not obtained in the human studies, and high frequency audiometric loss may have impac

SUBMITTER: Guest H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5256478 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature