Analysis of A Neural Oscillator Model with Plasticity for Treatment of Tinnitus.

Tinnitus is a symptom of perceiving phantom sounds. The majority of tinnitus cases are caused by misinterpreting null sounds from ears as significant nervous signals in the cerebral limbic system. There are two typical sound therapies for tinnitus: Tinnitus Masking (TM) and Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). Their effects have been discussed from clinical assessments. To account for the mechanism of perceiving tinnitus and the clinical effects from the viewpoint of engineering, this paper describes a neural oscillator model with a plastic coupling for a cerebral limbic system and its dynamic behavior. We observed a bi-stable state such that a stable equilibrium and a stable oscillation coexist in a certain range of parameters. It was also discovered that the value of the plastic coupling changes by external stimulation, and then the oscillation is inhibited. This could explain the fact that the retrained cerebral limbic system temporarily stops perceiving tinnitus after sound therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]