Unfortunately, tinnitus is usually caused by hearing loss which comes from the death of neurons in the ear, and we are a long way off from finding a solution. B

Unfortunately, tinnitus is usually caused by hearing loss which comes from the death of neurons in the ear, and we are a long way off from finding a solution. But to the extent that the percept of ringing comes from recurrently firing ensembles in the brain, than neuromodulation techniques may bring relief from the perceptual aspects. TMS seems modestly promising for tinnitus, but experiments thus far have been poorly controlled so hard to tell: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48750-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48750-9 Our lab has done work with using optogenetics for inhibiting neural activity, and I wonder if the inhibition approach might be better than disruption. It’s a bit hard to figure how TMS does inhibition vs excitation, even with electrical stimulation it’s complicated and varies by celltype!