New Research Seeks to Understand Serotonin's Role in Tinnitus

Fans and artists alike in the electronic dance music community either suffer from tinnitus or know someone who does.New research aims to understand how one of the brain’s chemicals can be used to treat this uncomfortable condition.

A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences aims to explain how serotonin affects tinnitus.For those unfamiliar, it’s the medical term for noise in your ears, like ringing or buzzing, without an external source causing it.

Tinnitus can be caused by many different conditions including high blood pressure, TMJ disorders, earwax buildup or even as a side effect of medicine, but the predominant cause is exposure to loud noise.This is, of course, highly relevant to the EDM community, where shows and festivals can expose audiences to dangerous noise levels that may cause tinnitus or hearing loss without proper ear protection.

Unfortunately, many forms of tinnitus have no cure, depending on the underlying condition, though treatments are available to help manage symptoms.Now, new findings from researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University and China’s Anhui University indicate that serotonin plays a role.

They conducted an experiment using mice and confirmed that serotonin increased the perception of tinnitus.“We’ve suspected that serotonin was involved in tinnitus, but we didn’t really understand how,” said co-senior author Zheng-Quan Tang.

“Now, using mice, we’ve found a specific brain circuit involving serotonin that goes straight to the auditory system, and found that it can induce tinnitus-like effects.When we turned that circuit off, we were able to ameliorate the tinnitus significantly.” “This gives us a much clearer picture of what’s going on in the brain, and points toward new possibilities for treatment.” There remains no silver bullet to cure tinnitus, but co-senior author Laurence Trussell said the research could be used to create a trea...