Comparing neural correlates of tinnitus with and without co-occurrence of hyperacusis based on auditory brainstem responses

June 2, 2022 at 9:00 am

Dr Hashir Aazh interviews Imke Jana Hrycyk from Graduate School of Medical Sciences (Research School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences), University of Groningen, The Netherlands, about her upcoming presentation at the 6th International Conference on Hyperacusis and Misophonia which is planned for Friday-Saturday 1-2 July 2022 at Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Imke Hrycyk is a graduate student at the University of Groningen getting her master’s degree in Computational Neuroscience. Her research and thesis focus on auditory processing in the inner ear, and she is interested in exploring how to re-establish missing or malfunctioning sensory perception.
Imke Hrycyk’s presentation is based on her MSc study which examines if hyperacusis merely differentiates subgroups within tinnitus patients or whether tinnitus with and without hyperacusis is caused by distinct underlying mechanisms. She used ABR as an electrophysiological marker to potentially distinguish patients with hearing loss and tinnitus with and without hyperacusis. ABR waves represent activations along the auditory neural pathways and by comparing amplitude and latency of the evoked potentials between patient groups, differences in neural correlates between both conditions could be uncovered. Their findings could have implications for the differential diagnosis of tinnitus and subsequent treatment options, possibly paving the way for more effective amelioration of tinnitus and/ or hyperacusis complaints.

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