7
$\begingroup$

I have ringing in my ears that has become constant over time. Most of the time I just ignore it, to tell you the truth I can't even remember when it started. Lately I'm curious what the frequency of the ringing is.

Is it the same for everyone or does it vary?The answer seems to be that it varies

Are there any usual suspect frequencies?

If it's always different from person to person, what's the easiest way of figuring out what it is? Is there an app for that? I still haven't found answer to this

When I chew something tough, many times I can hear the ringing increase in loudness and decrease as I flex my jaw and release. Thought this might be relevent.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
5
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ might be interesting biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/7/80 $\endgroup$
    – bummi
    Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 7:12
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I like the question, it's really interesting, but I down-voted for no research effort. A Google search for 'ringing in ears' would have told you this is tinnitus, which would have opened the doors to further research. $\endgroup$
    – BenCole
    Commented Jan 20, 2013 at 14:49
  • $\begingroup$ From my knowledge of speech processing, it's most likely several frequencies grouped together. Research will probably focus on detecting the fundamental frequency. $\endgroup$
    – Muz
    Commented Jan 29, 2013 at 6:06
  • $\begingroup$ ive been experiencing the same thing. A high pitched frequency not coming from my ears but in between. sometimes I feel that its a spiritual thing, other times im not sure. $\endgroup$
    – user8471
    Commented May 30, 2015 at 13:45
  • $\begingroup$ Tinnitus schminitis... check out Cymantics. Find a tone generator online and listen to all the notes. You'll find you resonate with one particular note (ie the sound will feel central in your brain and it will sound louder and clearer than the others - that is your current vibrational frequency)... then check out Anthony Sommers on YouTube and learn about Monaural and Binaural and Ischronic healing... the sounds you hear in your ears is your body telling you something.., $\endgroup$
    – Michelle
    Commented May 11, 2017 at 22:21

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
13
$\begingroup$

The frequency is individual, and known as tinnitus frequency or pitch.

From Okamoto et al., 2010:

Our target notched music introduced a functional deafferentation of auditory neurons corresponding to the eliminated frequency band, and because this frequency band overlapped the individual tinnitus frequency, the notched music no longer stimulated the cortical area corresponding to the tinnitus frequency, although it still excited surrounding neuron.

There is a dependency on "training" (from a Discover article):

Even in adulthood, experiencing new sounds can rewire the auditory cortex.
If a rat is trained to recognize sounds at a particular frequency, the
corresponding region of the tone map will get bigger.

From König et al., 2006:

To further examine the relation between tinnitus pitch and hearing loss, we grouped the patients by tinnitus pitch (<=3 kHz, 4 kHz, >=6 kHz) and calculated the mean audiogram as well as the mean audiogram edge frequency for each group

References

Okamoto, H., Stracke, H., Stoll, W., & Pantev, C. (2010). Listening to tailor-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(3), 1207-1210. PDF

König, O., Schaette, R., Kempter, R., & Gross, M. (2006). Course of hearing loss and occurrence of tinnitus. Hearing research, 221(1), 59-64. PDF

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Thanks for the response, can you explain it in simpler terms? Also, re: the down votes, is there a wayI can improve my question? $\endgroup$
    – Spundun
    Commented Jan 19, 2013 at 8:20
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Spundun: Well it might already be too late now since you've gotten a good answer, but here are some tips for next time. As BenCole pointed out, it wouldn't have been too difficult finding the term tinnitus yourself with a bit of initial research. This could have lead you to asking one specific question and focus on that instead of the various slightly related ones you asked now. $\endgroup$
    – Steven Jeuris ♦
    Commented Jan 20, 2013 at 15:30

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.