Hearing safety of long-term treatment with theta burst stimulation.
BACKGROUND
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the experimental treatment of tinnitus or auditory hallucinations aims at a modulation of cortical activity in areas of auditory perception and processing. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a patterned rTMS paradigm with lower stimulation intensity and shorter stimulus duration that is increasingly used for the optimization of rTMS-treatment paradigms. Possible interference with physiological brain function and the noise emitted by the rTMS device might induce relevant unwanted impairment of hearing and speech perception.


OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS
Here, we investigate the audiological safety of long-term, bilateral cTBS for the treatment of auditory phantom perception.


METHODS
Forty-eight patients with chronic tinnitus were treated for four weeks with bilateral continuous theta burst stimulation to the temporal (n = 16), temporoparietal (n = 16) or a non-cortical control (n = 16) site. Measurements in these patients were obtained before and four weeks after treatment. The rTMS-induced noise was measured at various frequency levels.


RESULTS
No evidence was found for auditory threshold shifts or alterations in the perception of speech in quiet or in background noise by bilateral, long-term theta burst stimulation to the temporal or temporoparietal cortex with a loudness of up to 84 dB SPL (A).


CONCLUSIONS
Theta burst stimulation of the temporal and temporoparietal cortex appears to be safe with respect to hearing and speech perception. These data provide evidence for the audiological safety of rTMS in the experimental treatment of auditory phantom perception.
['Schraven|Sebastian P|SP|', 'Plontke|Stefan K|SK|', 'Rahne|Torsten|T|', 'Wasserka|Barbara|B|', 'Plewnia|Christian|C|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D001303:Auditory Cortex D001307:Auditory Perception D005260:Female D006311:Hearing Disorders D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D012449:Safety D013995:Time D014012:Tinnitus D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation D016896:Treatment Outcome
Hearing Safety Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation Tinnitus Brain stimulation Therapy