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Special Seminar - Susan Shore

16 March 2018, 11:00 am–12:00 pm

Susan Shore

Special Seminar by Susan Shore, Friday 16th March, Bedford Way

Event Information

Open to

All

Organiser

Prof Jennifer Linden

Location

Lecture Theatre G03, 26 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AP

"Bimodal stimulation desynchronizes brain circuitry to reduce tinnitus in guinea pigs and humans"

 

Abstract:

 The dorsal cochlear nucleus is the first site of multisensory convergence in mammalian auditory pathways. Principal output neurons, the fusiform cells, integrate auditory nerve inputs from the cochlea with somatosensory inputs from the head and neck. In previous work, we developed a guinea pig model of tinnitus induced by noise exposure and showed that the fusiform cells in these animals exhibited increased spontaneous activity and cross-unit synchrony, which are physiological correlates of tinnitus. We delivered repeated bimodal auditory-somatosensory stimulation to the dorsal cochlear nucleus of guinea pigs with tinnitus, choosing a stimulus interval known to induce long-term depression (LTD). Twenty minutes per day of LTD-inducing bimodal (but not unimodal) stimulation reduced physiological and behavioral evidence of tinnitus in the guinea pigs after 25 days. Next, we applied the same bimodal treatment to 20 human subjects with tinnitus using a double-blinded, sham-controlled, crossover study. Twenty-eight days of LTD-inducing bimodal stimulation reduced tinnitus loudness and intrusiveness. Unimodal auditory stimulation did not deliver either benefit. Bimodal auditory-somatosensory stimulation that induces LTD in the dorsal cochlear nucleus may hold promise for suppressing chronic tinnitus, which reduces quality of life for millions of tinnitus sufferers worldwide.

 Bio:

 Susan Shore, Ph.D., is The Joseph Hawkins, Jr. Collegiate Research Professor at the University of Michigan, and Professor in the University of Michigan Departments of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, and Biomedical Engineering. Professor Shore received her B.S. in speech pathology and audiology and her M.A. in hearing science from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She obtained her Ph.D. in physiology at the Louisiana State University Medical Center, and did postdoctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh and the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan Medical School. Prof. Shore has spent the past decade studying multisensory integration in the cochlear nucleus and mechanisms underlying tinnitus generation. More recently her focus has been the targets of hidden hearing loss in the cochlear nucleus.