For treatment of tinnitus?

Stimulation of a nerve in the neck proved effective in stopping the sounds of whistles in the rat, in a U.S. study published in the journal Nature.

Tinnitus Remedies

Michael Kilgard, University of Texas, and his colleagues stimulated the vagus nerve (or vagus nerve) in rodents while they were hear their sounds. The treatment seems to bring parts of the brain that interprets sounds to reprogram itself to return to their original state and remove the source of the hum or hiss.

“We believe that part of the brain that processes sounds, the auditory cortex, using too many neurons (nerve cells) for certain frequencies and the system starts going wrong,” he says.

The research team plans to begin the first tests in humans in Europe in early 2011. Participants will link the electrodes to the vagus nerve in the neck while they follow the treatment externally. They arise in clinic Monday through Friday for several weeks for processing which will be a pairing of stimuli and sound.

The NIH has provided 1.7 million U.S. to Kilgard and device manufacturer, MicroTransponder, to test whether stimulation of the vagus nerve may be a treatment of tinnitus.

Vagus nerve stimulation is already used to treat depression and epilepsy.

To date, treatments for tinnitus are essentially mask the sound or learn to ignore them