Tinnitus: pathology of synaptic plasticity at the cellular and system levels

Despite being more and more common, and having a high impact on the quality of life of sufferers, tinnitus does not yet have a cure. This has been mostly the result of limited knowledge of the biological mechanisms underlying this adverse pathology. However, the last decade has witnessed tremendous progress in our understanding on the pathophysiology of tinnitus. Animal models have demonstrated that tinnitus is a pathology of neural plasticity, and has two main components: a molecular, peripheral component related to the initiation phase of tinnitus; and a system-level, central component-related to the long-term maintenance of tinnitus. Using the most recent experimental data and the molecular/system dichotomy as a framework, we describe here the biological basis of tinnitus. We then discuss these mechanisms from an evolutionary perspective, highlighting similarities with memory. Finally, we consider how these discoveries can translate into therapies, and we suggest operative strategies to design new and effective combined therapeutic solutions using both pharmacological (local and systemic) and behavioral tools (e.g., using tele-medicine and virtual reality settings).

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience

• Publication date

  2012-03-08

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3389/fnsys.2012.00012PMID 22408611PMCID 3297194
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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• Dedicated To my loving wife for her utmost efforts to make impossible , possible To my kids and my parents

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