Recent studies have suggested that hyperacusis, an abnormal hypersensitivity to ordinary environmental sounds, may be characterized by certain resting-state cortical oscillatory patterns, even with no sound stimulus. However, previous studies are limited in that most studied subjects with other comorbidities that may have affected cortical activity. In this regard, to assess ongoing cortical os...

The objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of hyperacusis among school-aged children. We define hyperacusis as lowered loudness discomfort levels (LDL) associated with an abnormal annoyance to sounds. We used questionnaires, interviews, and estimates of LDL in a study of 506 children from 5 to 12 years of age from 15 different schools. Participants with LDL in the lowest ...

The present study aims to evaluate and validate the Italian version of Khalfa's questionnaire on hyperacusis (HQ). We recruited 117 patients (64 men, 53 women, mean age 53 years, range 14-88) with tinnitus for at least 3 months as a primary disorder. All patients completed the THI and the Italian version of the HQ and underwent audiometry, pitch and loudness tinnitus matching, otoacoustic emiss...

38 Phantom sensations and sensory hypersensitivity are disordered perceptions that 39 characterize a variety of intractable conditions involving the somatosensory, visual, 40 and auditory modalities. We report physiological correlates of two perceptual 41 abnormalities in the auditory domain: tinnitus, the phantom perception of sound, and 42 hyperacusis, a decreased tolerance of sound based on ...

Hearing loss changes the auditory brain, sometimes maladaptively. When deprived of cochlear input, central auditory neurons become more active spontaneously and begin to respond more strongly and synchronously to better preserved sound frequencies. This spontaneous and sound-evoked central hyperactivity has been postulated to trigger tinnitus and hyperacusis, respectively. Localized hyperactivi...

OBJECTIVE Prospective study of the effectiveness of treatment in patients with hyperacusis by means of an open-field technique of acoustic treatment with nature sounds. MATERIAL AND METHODS 34 patients were referred to a tinnitus and hyperacusis clinic at a private Otorhinolaryngology Department. Clinical and exploratory ENT studies were performed. Open-field nature sounds were applied by mea...

Tinnitus is an incapacitating condition commonly affecting cochlear implant (CI) candidates. The aim of this clinical study is to assess the long-term effects of CI treatment in patients with severe-to-profound, sensorineural, unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and incapacitating tinnitus. We performed a prospective Cochlear™ company-sponsored multicentre study in five Spanish centres. Sixteen patie...

This report is an attempt to bring to your attention some important information related to decreased sound tolerance and it is based on a short paper (Jastreboff, MM and Jastreboff PJ, Hyperacusis, Audiology Online, June 2001, http://www.audiologyonline.com). In particular, as we recently proposed a new term “misophonia” and we would like to provide some explanation and justification for it (Ja...

Increased auditory sensitivity, also called hyperacusis, is a pervasive complaint of people with tinnitus. The high prevalence of hyperacusis in tinnitus subjects suggests that both symptoms have a common origin. It has been suggested that they may result from a maladjusted increase of central gain attributable to sensory deafferentation. More specifically, tinnitus and hyperacusis could result...