École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Faculty of medicine, Université de Montréal, C.P.6128, succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7.
Hear Res. 2013 Jan;295:16-23. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2012.05.011. Epub 2012 Jun 9.
The measurement of tinnitus in humans relies on subjective measures such as self-report, visual analog scales and questionnaires. Gap detection impairments have been tested in animals in an attempt to objectify the presence of tinnitus. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the gap startle paradigm in human participants with high-frequency tinnitus. Fifteen adults with bilateral high-frequency tinnitus but normal hearing at standard frequencies and seventeen matched controls without tinnitus were tested. The psychoacoustic characteristics of the tinnitus spectrum (pitch and loudness) were assessed using novel participant-directed custom-made methods. The startle task consisted of startle-alone, prepulse inhibition and gap-in-noise condition at low- and high-background noise frequencies. All measurements were retested after several months. Data indicate normal prepulse inhibition but higher reactivity to the startle sounds in the tinnitus group in comparison with controls. Most importantly, the tinnitus group displayed a consistent deficit in gap processing at both low- and high-background noise frequencies. All effects were identified consistently and were reproducible at retest. We propose that the higher reactivity to startle might reflect hyperacusis and that the gap deficit might be an index of abnormal cortical auditory processing in tinnitus.
人类耳鸣的测量依赖于主观测量，如自我报告、视觉模拟量表和问卷。为了客观地确定耳鸣的存在，已经在动物身上测试了间隙探测障碍。本研究的主要目的是在高频耳鸣的人类参与者中研究间隙惊跳范式。15 名高频耳鸣但标准频率听力正常的成年人和 17 名无耳鸣的匹配对照者接受了测试。使用新的参与者导向的定制方法评估耳鸣频谱的心理声学特征（音调和响度）。惊跳任务包括惊跳-alone、前脉冲抑制和在低背景噪声和高背景噪声频率下的噪声中的间隙条件。所有测量均在数月后进行重复测试。数据表明，与对照组相比，耳鸣组的正常前脉冲抑制，但对惊跳声的反应更高。最重要的是，耳鸣组在低背景噪声和高背景噪声频率下的间隙处理均存在一致的缺陷。所有效应均一致确定，并在复测时具有可重复性。我们提出，对惊跳的更高反应可能反映了听觉过敏，而间隙缺陷可能是耳鸣中异常皮质听觉处理的指标。
