Characterization of Tinnitus Through the Analysis of Electroencephalographic Activity

Subjective tinnitus is a symptom associated with the perception of a sound without an external source that generates it. Although its origin is due to a hearing impairment, the perception of this is a brain pathology that causes a decrease in the quality of life of people suffering from it, having significant morbidity. There is no cure, and alternative treatments remain uncertain. The main objective of the present database was to characterize tinnitus and classify it according to the neuronal electrical response to provide a reliable and replicable accurate measurement that reflected the nature of this symptom. The experimental paradigm was tested for objective information (in a control group (GC) of 15 participants and a tinnitus group (GA) of 22 participants) where EEG activity was recorded in two states: (1) basal, where the person remained in a state of rest with open eyes; (2) active where the participant had the task of identifying a sound stimulus, within a sound-tinnitus library, by pressing a key. GA had to identify the sound most similar to personal tinnitus. GC had to identify the 3.5kHz sound.

主观性耳鸣（Subjective tinnitus）是指在无外部声源的情况下感知到声音的症状。尽管其根源为听觉损伤，但该感知本身属于脑部病理状态，会降低患者的生活质量，并伴随显著的发病率。目前尚无治愈方法，替代疗法的疗效仍不明确。本数据库的核心目标是对耳鸣进行特征刻画，并依据神经元电反应进行分类，以期获得可靠、可复现的精准测量手段，以反映该症状的本质。本实验范式针对客观信息采集进行了验证，测试对象分为两组：对照组（Control Group，GC）共15名受试者，耳鸣组（Tinnitus Group，GA）共22名受试者，两组均在两种状态下记录脑电图（EEG）活动：（1）静息状态：受试者保持睁眼静息；（2）任务状态：受试者需在声-耳鸣库内的声音刺激中，通过按键识别指定声音。其中耳鸣组（GA）需识别与自身耳鸣最为相似的声音，对照组（GC）则需识别3.5kHz的声音。