Now for the first time we have been able to show distinct brain changes due to tinnitus using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in a patient. The brain produces magnetic waves which are very small and hard to measure. The MEG machine that measures these waves is very large, very complicated and very expensive. We are very grateful to Professor Stephen Crain and Dr Blake Johnson at Macquarie University in Sydney who provided the MEG machine and analysed the results.

The key to making this finding is that by using TIPA we can switch tinnitus off completely for extended periods in some patients. Therefore we can do MEG on the patient while the tinnitus is present and then again after the tinnitus has been switched off and compare the results.

We did this in August 2011 and the colour graphs below show the changes. This patient has been using TIPA for 2 years and is routinely able to switch his tinnitus off (complete residual inhibition) for 2 to 3 days after a single 12 minute exposure to the TIPA signal. Figure 4 is while his tinnitus is present and Figure 5 is when his tinnitus is absent. The blue colour in Figure 4 corresponds to his tinnitus and disappears in Figure 5 when his tinnitus has gone.

Technically, the blue colour is Event Related Desynchronisation in the beta band over the temporal cortex using evoked responses to 4KHz tone pips.

These results were presented at the Tinnitus Research Initiative conference at Buffalo, New York in August 2011.

TIPA is available as an internet download from the App Store on Apple iTunes and can be played on iPhone or iPod touch. See the NEWS UPDATE page on this website for details.