This study aims to explore the effect of cochlear implantation on tinnitus perception. A prospect... more This study aims to explore the effect of cochlear implantation on tinnitus perception. A prospective study was conducted on 72 adult hearing-impaired patients to evaluate tinnitus perception before and after cochlear implantation, using standardized tinnitus questionnaires (the tinnitus sample case-history questionnaire, tinnitus functional index (TFI), and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI)). A large variety of demographic and hearing- and implant-related data was collected from patient hospital records to explore possible associations with the implantation effect. The prevalence of tinnitus complaints before implantation was 58.3%. The temporary induction or aggravation of tinnitus immediately after surgery was noted in 20% and 46.7% of patients, respectively. When evaluated 3 months after implantation, 60% of tinnitus patients experienced a clinically significant reduction in their complaints; most of the improvements were experienced immediately after activation of the implant. O...
Aim. Chronic tinnitus can result in comorbid distressing symptoms, such as impaired concentration... more Aim. Chronic tinnitus can result in comorbid distressing symptoms, such as impaired concentration related to speech intelligibility. Previous research stated that non-auditory central aspects, such as working memory and selective attention, may influence speech intelligibility. Therefore, speech intelligibility may become more effortful for tinnitus patients. A pilot study showed significantly more listening effort in normal-hearing young adults with tinnitus compared to a control group (Degeest et al., 2017). It was hypothesized that an attention shift towards tinnitus and an extra load on working memory may reduce cognitive capacity when performing several tasks. However, tinnitus patients may profit from background noise to mask their tinnitus. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the effect of tinnitus maskability on listening effort. Method. Two groups of 5 tinnitus patients, categorized based on their residual inhibition response (i.e. (partial) positive or negative response) are included and compared with a control group. All subjects are matched for age, gender, hearing thresholds and educational level. A dual-task paradigm is used to evaluate listening effort (Degeest et al.2015). Results. Data collection is ongoing and will be presented at the conference. Listening effort will be compared between the two tinnitus groups as well as with the control group.
Introduction and aim Etiological diagnosis of hearing impairment is of great importance to ensure... more Introduction and aim Etiological diagnosis of hearing impairment is of great importance to ensure early and adequate management. Several diagnostic tests can be used to reach this goal (history taking, physical examination, imaging, laboratory tests,...). However, clear guidelines about optimal implementation and sequence of these tests are required. The purpose of this study was to optimize the etiological-diagnostic work-up of unidentified hearing loss.
Bartels, H. (2008a). General conclusions, discussion and future perspectives. In H. Bartels (Ed.)... more Bartels, H. (2008a). General conclusions, discussion and future perspectives. In H. Bartels (Ed.), Tinnitus: new insights into pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. (pp. 159-171). Groningen: Ponsen & Looijen b.v. Bartels, H. (2008b). General introduction and outline of the thesis. In H. Bartels (Ed.), Tinnitus: new insights into pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. (pp. 11-17). Groningen: Ponsen & Looijen b.v.
BackgroundThe origin of tinnitus has been attributed to a peripheral auditory lesion, inducing bo... more BackgroundThe origin of tinnitus has been attributed to a peripheral auditory lesion, inducing bottom‐up changes and resulting in the perception of a “phantom sound.” However, non‐auditory factors can co‐exist as well, and can even lie at the origin of tinnitus development. An increasing body of literature focuses on psychological, (neuro)muscular, cardiovascular and many other influences and their respective associations with tinnitus prevalence.Objective of reviewThe purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of these non‐otologic risk factors, and to summarise the evidence in literature about their link with tinnitus.Type of reviewA narrative systematic review was conducted, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses statement.Search strategyThe MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for eligible articles, supplemented with manual search methods and grey literature search. Epidemiologic...
Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, 2019
Objective: Although the prevalence and burden of tinnitus is high, none of the available tinnitus... more Objective: Although the prevalence and burden of tinnitus is high, none of the available tinnitus treatments has been proven to be effective for the majority of tinnitus patients so far. Neuromodulation is currently gaining more interest to explore as tinnitus treatment. Because noninvasive neuromodulation has been shown to be effective in some tinnitus patients in the short term, more invasive techniques have been applied with variable success and without clear clinical applicability. As new insights into the neuropathophysiology of tinnitus arise, it seems essential to recapitulate the current evidence of invasive neuromodulation for tinnitus, to assess the quality of the available studies and identify gaps in this research domain.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2019
PurposeFunctional imaging is often used to try to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanism of t... more PurposeFunctional imaging is often used to try to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanism of tinnitus. Residual inhibition, the temporary suppression of tinnitus after application of a masking noise, could be an interesting technique to modulate tinnitus perception in functional imaging paradigms. The purposes of this study were to primarily assess reproducibility of the (partial) positive residual inhibition response duration in patients with tinnitus and to explore its utility in experimental designs.MethodPatients with tinnitus exhibiting a (partial) positive residual inhibition response or tinnitus reduction after a 1-min white noise presentation were selected from a broad consulting tinnitus population. In 27 patients, this response was tested 4 times: twice during initial testing and twice during a retest of the psychoacoustic tinnitus measures, 4–8 weeks after initial consultation. In 17 patients with stable residual inhibition responses, reproducibility of response durati...
International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 2015
Approximately 2-4 in 1000 children are born with sensorineural hearing loss (HL), making it the m... more Approximately 2-4 in 1000 children are born with sensorineural hearing loss (HL), making it the most prevalent birth defect [1,2]. This high prevalence, together with the early-onset HL among school-aged children and young adults, causes a substantial direct disease burden. Overall, the consequences of hearing impairment are highly underestimated [1-4]. Problems are not only linguistic, but also interfere with professional, social and psychological well-being. In order to minimize these effects, timely detection and effective intervention is desirable [5-7]. Furthermore, determination of the cause of HL enables counseling, customized intervention, and anticipation of possible associated comorbidities [2]. Unlike acquired HL, the relative proportions of the various causes of congenital HL are well established. More than 50% of congenital HL is hereditary [1,2,8,9] of which the majority (2/3) is non-syndromic. The pattern of inheritance is autosomal recessive (AR) in 75% of these hearing losses. More than 50% of the AR nonsyndromic losses are due to a mutation in the GJB2 gene, encoding Connexin 26 (Cx26) [1,10,11]. Regarding syndromic HL, some authors cite Waardenburg syndrome as the most prevalent otogenetic syndrome [12,13], while others define Pendred syndrome (SLC26A4 gene defect) as the most frequent [1]. Besides a genetic origin, environmental factors account for the remaining
This study aims to explore the effect of cochlear implantation on tinnitus perception. A prospect... more This study aims to explore the effect of cochlear implantation on tinnitus perception. A prospective study was conducted on 72 adult hearing-impaired patients to evaluate tinnitus perception before and after cochlear implantation, using standardized tinnitus questionnaires (the tinnitus sample case-history questionnaire, tinnitus functional index (TFI), and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI)). A large variety of demographic and hearing- and implant-related data was collected from patient hospital records to explore possible associations with the implantation effect. The prevalence of tinnitus complaints before implantation was 58.3%. The temporary induction or aggravation of tinnitus immediately after surgery was noted in 20% and 46.7% of patients, respectively. When evaluated 3 months after implantation, 60% of tinnitus patients experienced a clinically significant reduction in their complaints; most of the improvements were experienced immediately after activation of the implant. O...
Aim. Chronic tinnitus can result in comorbid distressing symptoms, such as impaired concentration... more Aim. Chronic tinnitus can result in comorbid distressing symptoms, such as impaired concentration related to speech intelligibility. Previous research stated that non-auditory central aspects, such as working memory and selective attention, may influence speech intelligibility. Therefore, speech intelligibility may become more effortful for tinnitus patients. A pilot study showed significantly more listening effort in normal-hearing young adults with tinnitus compared to a control group (Degeest et al., 2017). It was hypothesized that an attention shift towards tinnitus and an extra load on working memory may reduce cognitive capacity when performing several tasks. However, tinnitus patients may profit from background noise to mask their tinnitus. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the effect of tinnitus maskability on listening effort. Method. Two groups of 5 tinnitus patients, categorized based on their residual inhibition response (i.e. (partial) positive or negative response) are included and compared with a control group. All subjects are matched for age, gender, hearing thresholds and educational level. A dual-task paradigm is used to evaluate listening effort (Degeest et al.2015). Results. Data collection is ongoing and will be presented at the conference. Listening effort will be compared between the two tinnitus groups as well as with the control group.
Introduction and aim Etiological diagnosis of hearing impairment is of great importance to ensure... more Introduction and aim Etiological diagnosis of hearing impairment is of great importance to ensure early and adequate management. Several diagnostic tests can be used to reach this goal (history taking, physical examination, imaging, laboratory tests,...). However, clear guidelines about optimal implementation and sequence of these tests are required. The purpose of this study was to optimize the etiological-diagnostic work-up of unidentified hearing loss.
Bartels, H. (2008a). General conclusions, discussion and future perspectives. In H. Bartels (Ed.)... more Bartels, H. (2008a). General conclusions, discussion and future perspectives. In H. Bartels (Ed.), Tinnitus: new insights into pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. (pp. 159-171). Groningen: Ponsen & Looijen b.v. Bartels, H. (2008b). General introduction and outline of the thesis. In H. Bartels (Ed.), Tinnitus: new insights into pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. (pp. 11-17). Groningen: Ponsen & Looijen b.v.
BackgroundThe origin of tinnitus has been attributed to a peripheral auditory lesion, inducing bo... more BackgroundThe origin of tinnitus has been attributed to a peripheral auditory lesion, inducing bottom‐up changes and resulting in the perception of a “phantom sound.” However, non‐auditory factors can co‐exist as well, and can even lie at the origin of tinnitus development. An increasing body of literature focuses on psychological, (neuro)muscular, cardiovascular and many other influences and their respective associations with tinnitus prevalence.Objective of reviewThe purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of these non‐otologic risk factors, and to summarise the evidence in literature about their link with tinnitus.Type of reviewA narrative systematic review was conducted, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analyses statement.Search strategyThe MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for eligible articles, supplemented with manual search methods and grey literature search. Epidemiologic...
Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, 2019
Objective: Although the prevalence and burden of tinnitus is high, none of the available tinnitus... more Objective: Although the prevalence and burden of tinnitus is high, none of the available tinnitus treatments has been proven to be effective for the majority of tinnitus patients so far. Neuromodulation is currently gaining more interest to explore as tinnitus treatment. Because noninvasive neuromodulation has been shown to be effective in some tinnitus patients in the short term, more invasive techniques have been applied with variable success and without clear clinical applicability. As new insights into the neuropathophysiology of tinnitus arise, it seems essential to recapitulate the current evidence of invasive neuromodulation for tinnitus, to assess the quality of the available studies and identify gaps in this research domain.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2019
PurposeFunctional imaging is often used to try to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanism of t... more PurposeFunctional imaging is often used to try to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanism of tinnitus. Residual inhibition, the temporary suppression of tinnitus after application of a masking noise, could be an interesting technique to modulate tinnitus perception in functional imaging paradigms. The purposes of this study were to primarily assess reproducibility of the (partial) positive residual inhibition response duration in patients with tinnitus and to explore its utility in experimental designs.MethodPatients with tinnitus exhibiting a (partial) positive residual inhibition response or tinnitus reduction after a 1-min white noise presentation were selected from a broad consulting tinnitus population. In 27 patients, this response was tested 4 times: twice during initial testing and twice during a retest of the psychoacoustic tinnitus measures, 4–8 weeks after initial consultation. In 17 patients with stable residual inhibition responses, reproducibility of response durati...
International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 2015
Approximately 2-4 in 1000 children are born with sensorineural hearing loss (HL), making it the m... more Approximately 2-4 in 1000 children are born with sensorineural hearing loss (HL), making it the most prevalent birth defect [1,2]. This high prevalence, together with the early-onset HL among school-aged children and young adults, causes a substantial direct disease burden. Overall, the consequences of hearing impairment are highly underestimated [1-4]. Problems are not only linguistic, but also interfere with professional, social and psychological well-being. In order to minimize these effects, timely detection and effective intervention is desirable [5-7]. Furthermore, determination of the cause of HL enables counseling, customized intervention, and anticipation of possible associated comorbidities [2]. Unlike acquired HL, the relative proportions of the various causes of congenital HL are well established. More than 50% of congenital HL is hereditary [1,2,8,9] of which the majority (2/3) is non-syndromic. The pattern of inheritance is autosomal recessive (AR) in 75% of these hearing losses. More than 50% of the AR nonsyndromic losses are due to a mutation in the GJB2 gene, encoding Connexin 26 (Cx26) [1,10,11]. Regarding syndromic HL, some authors cite Waardenburg syndrome as the most prevalent otogenetic syndrome [12,13], while others define Pendred syndrome (SLC26A4 gene defect) as the most frequent [1]. Besides a genetic origin, environmental factors account for the remaining
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