Watch how your nervous system's efforts to process silence can contribute to tinnitus

If hearing is damaged, the brain may amplify remaining sounds, perhaps causing tinnitus

Recent mouse brain and ear imaging revealed that the creature compensates for hearing loss by sending signals to the cochlea in the inner ear. This triggers nerve fibers in the inner ear to increase volume and become more sensitive. Learning about these boosted-sensitivity messages from the brain to the cochlea—if they're similar in humans—might help explain tinnitus and fuel experimental approaches to turn down that sensitivity.

People with tinnitus should avoid silence—sound-rich environments distract the brain

This podcast from an audiologist discusses common questions about tinnitus. It notes that tinnitus could be described as a phantom sound associated with hyperactivity in the brain. It's linked with loud sound exposures above 85 decibels, hearing loss associated with aging and stress, among other factors.

Tinnitus estimates vary, but may occur in 10%-15% of the population

This video discusses the mechanisms underlying tinnitus and explores the knowns and unknowns about the condition. Tinnitus most commonly occurs among those with hearing loss, suggesting that cochlear damage may be a factor.

One decibel of hearing loss increases tinnitus risk by 6% for older people

That's according to an analysis of more than 18,000 people published in BMC Medicine in 2023. The tinnitus risk is not just limited to older people: The research also concluded that one decibel of hearing loss increases the risk of developing tinnitus among young adults by 3 percent.

See what loud noises do to inner ear hair cells

This animation illustrates how louder music can affect inner ear hair cells. Damage to these cells is generally considered permanent. Hearing protection like ear plugs can reduce the level of sound entering into the ear and help protect those cells.

Hearing loss can affect balance and make falls more likely

For reasons that are not yet fully understood, hearing loss seems to increase the risk of falls. One explanation is that reduced environmental awareness due to hearing loss may put people at greater risk. Another theory is that the brain has to work harder to process sound with hearing loss and that cognitive load may also boost the chances of falls. One study found that for every 10 decibel increase in hearing loss, there was a 1.4 fold increased odds of falling in the preceding 12 months.

Tinnitus is a rare side effect of COVID-19

The infection can affect inner ear cells, and a review of the literature across multiple studies concluded that hearing loss occurred in 3.1% of patients with the virus and tinnitus in 4.5%.

Hear examples of what tinnitus can sound like to those suffering from it

This video, from a Scottish branch of the UK National Health Service, features different types of ringing, crackling, and other sounds that tinnitus sufferers experience. Individual responses to such phantom sounds may vary widely.

Age-related hearing loss, known as presbycusis, is a top cause of hearing loss

This video walks through the biology of why presbycusis (prez-buh-kyoo-sis) occurs and its etiology. This type of hearing loss is gradual and typically starts with reductions in the ability to hear high-pitched sounds.

A new tinnitus therapy involves mild electric tongue shocks and sound exposures

Lenire, an FDA-approved bimodal neuromodulation treatment approach for tinnitus, aims to teach the brain to distract itself from tinnitus. It includes short-term daily sessions wearing a mouth device that delivers mild electrical pulses to the tongue while listening to different sounds. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Read Charles Darwin's description of his tinnitus suffering

When he was 57 years old, Darwin wrote to a new doctor about his suffering from a variety of maladies, including "singing of ears", vomiting, recurring flatulence, vomiting, and more. He noted how he believed his stress contributed to these symptoms.

Tinnitus is derived from the Latin verb tinnire, meaning to ring

Read the entry in The Physical Dictionary by Stephen Blankaart, from 1693, where the word first appeared in English.

Chronic inflammation can cause cellular damage and could lead to cancer

Over time, this cellular defense system can inadvertently damage cells and tissues when it's in this heightened alarm mode over a prolonged period. This occurs because, when immune cells are sent somewhere without a true target, they may attack healthy cells and tissues.

Noise pollution from humans and technology alters animal behavior

Animals may experience chronic stress and health issues due to noise pollution, which often interferes with their mating sounds. Due to traffic, nightingales sing louder on weekday mornings, and birds near airports start singing earlier to avoid upticks in takeoffs and landings.

Cochlear implants are raising questions about deaf identity and culture

The rise of cochlear implants, which are usually covered by insurance and can enable hearing for many patients, raises questions about what it means to be deaf, the effects on deaf individuals learning American Sign Language, and about deaf culture. Watch this video that discusses the controversies and spotlights a little girl who hears for the first time with her cochlear implant.

Cellular aging and deterioration leads to tissue (and overall) aging

Cells are the building blocks of life, forming tissues and organs that keep our bodies working. As we age, cellular changes have progressive consequences on both the structure and function of our organs. This article examines this complex relationship as it relates to the incremental changes associated with aging.

Noise-canceling headphones cancel out environmental sounds with sound of its own

If sound waves are perfectly out of sync, they can undergo destructive interference, canceling each other out. A microphone in noise-canceling headphones picks up external sounds, and an out-of-sync version is emitted to cancel them out in your ears.

Age, stress, and neurological disorders can prevent memory formation and recall

Neurons transmit signals between one another at sites called synapses. Repeated interactions at these sites improve the efficiency of signal transmissions, making memories involving sensory data associated with those neurons easier to recall. Biochemical factors impacting these synaptic interactions affect memory quality.

How does the cocktail party effect work?

In the 1950s, British cognitive scientist Colin Cherry started to explore how we could focus our hearing on one single source, even in a noisy environment. This video animation explains the phenomenon known as the cocktail effect and how selective hearing works. Discover how our brain is on the lookout for important or personally relevant information, even as we are occupied in other discussions.

Sound can shatter glass if its frequency matches the material's natural vibrations

The sound made by an object when struck is its resonant frequency, which is the sound made when energy is dissipated. Providing energy at that frequency amplifies the vibrations, rather than allowing them to dissipate, which can deteriorate the object's structural integrity.

Wearing a 'schizophrenia simulator,' designed to build empathy for patients, CNN's Anderson Cooper finds he struggles to function

Donning headphones that play a track mimicking the auditory hallucinations common in schizophrenia, Cooper finds he is very distracted, disconcerted, and frustrated. The auditory track aims to help listeners build empathy with patient populations by understanding the challenges they face in daily life.

Touch deprivation can heighten anxiety and depression

Pacinian Corpuscles are pressure receptors just under the skin that send signals to the vagus nerve in the brain—that's the cranial nerve which regulates involuntary actions like breathing, heart rate, and the general "fight or flight" response. Activating those receptors can slow the heart, decrease blood pressure, and lead to the release of oxytocin and cortisol. The absence of touch, conversely, can promote negative feelings.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Repeated head injuries can lead to CTE and early dementia

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated trauma to the head. The condition has become a particular concern in sports like football and soccer, from youth to professional leagues, where repeated low-level concussive events are likely.

Meet the 12 cranial nerves

Your cranial nerves are a set of 12 paired nerves in your brain. They help your brain and body communicate senses, movement or both.

Anosmia is the total loss of the sense of smell

This type of loss—due to disease or trauma—has ripple effects, including an altered or limited sense of taste. This video details the anatomy and physiology of our sense of smell and taste and how these senses are interrelated.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.