Stéphane Maison

So now you start to perceive a sound that is not there.

The leg is gone, but you start to feel pain where it's missing.

Your brain is artificially increasing the perception.

So in the case of touch, if I touch you with my finger like this, you're going to feel my finger.

If I increase the perception, that's going to turn into pain.

If tinnitus is the result of the hyperactivity of the brain because something is missing, then people with normal hearing tests should not have tinnitus.

But a hearing test does not tell you the whole story.

There's something I like to tell my patients.

If everything is fine, you should be able to hear a pin drop, or you should be able to hear an explosion.

If you think about it, that's a gigantic dynamic range.

And if the fibers that respond to loud sounds are missing, this is not going to affect whatsoever your hearing test.

So the gold standard of hearing evaluation around the world to this day is completely insensitive to the loss of those fibers.

The fibers that are the most susceptible to aging and noise exposure are the fibers that code for loud sounds.

And if you look at most people, that's something very, very common.

They feel like they don't have any issues in a quiet environment, but as soon as they go to a bar or a restaurant, they start to struggle.

Instead of testing them in quiet, it's as if someone was speaking super fast with a little bit of reverberation.

So now you're looking at the brainstem response.

And interestingly, the participant with tinnitus had response as big as those who never had tinnitus.

Tinnitus is not a sound in your ears.

Tinnitus is generated at the central nervous system.