All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, India.
J Int Adv Otol. 2023 Jun;19(3):175-181. doi: 10.5152/iao.2023.22990.
Tinnitus is a sound perceived in the ears or head without any external or internal sound source. It can be hypothesized that the auditory processing at the different levels of the auditory pathway and working memory may get affected due to the additional sound contributed by tinnitus. The objective of our study is to evaluate binaural processes and working memory capacity in individual with tinnitus having normal hearing sensitivity.
The binaural interaction process was evaluated using the interaural time difference and interaural level difference. Similarly, the binaural integration process was assessed using the dichotic consonant-vowel test, and the working memory was assessed using the audio descending span test and Audio 2N-Back span test. Mann-Whitney U test was done to see the significant difference between the groups.
The Mann-Whitney U test showed significantly poorer interaural level difference scores in the tinnitus group. Also, dichotic consonantvowel test scores and auditory working memory test scores were found to be significantly lower in individuals with tinnitus.
The binaural processes, along with the working memory capacity, are found to be affected in an individual with tinnitus, which in turn may affect the speech perception ability of the individual.
耳鸣是一种在耳朵或头部感知到的声音，没有任何外部或内部声源。可以假设，由于耳鸣产生的额外声音，听觉通路的不同水平的听觉处理和工作记忆可能会受到影响。我们的研究目的是评估听力正常的耳鸣患者的双耳处理和工作记忆能力。
使用耳间时间差和耳间水平差评估双耳相互作用过程。同样，使用双音节辅音-元音测试评估双耳整合过程，使用音频降序跨度测试和音频 2N-Back 跨度测试评估工作记忆。采用曼-惠特尼 U 检验比较组间差异。
曼-惠特尼 U 检验显示耳鸣组的耳间水平差得分明显较差。此外，耳鸣患者的双音节辅音-元音测试得分和听觉工作记忆测试得分明显较低。
耳鸣患者的双耳处理和工作记忆能力受到影响，这可能反过来影响个体的言语感知能力。
