Effect of Musical Auditory Training on Subjects With Tinnitus Disorder

Universidade Federal de Santa Maria

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Tinnitus

Treatments: Behavioral: Treinamento Auditivo Musical; Behavioral: Placebo

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06371287

64696022.1.0000.5346

Details and patient eligibility

About

Among the theories of tinnitus generation, there is that of central neuroplastic changes, which reports the association between changes and reorganization that occur in central auditory pathways and impacts on associated areas due to the altered neural signal. Auditory training modifies these altered pathways through auditory exercises, which provoke positive neuroplasticity. Musical auditory training is a proposal to stimulate auditory, cognitive and metalinguistic skills with activities focused on musicality. Therefore, the objective of this study is to verify the effect of musical auditory training (MAT) on the neuroplasticity of the auditory system and the perception of tinnitus disorder in young adults.

Enrollment: 24 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 55 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Individuals of both sexes aged between 18 years and 55 years;
• Complaint of chronic tinnitus (minimum perception of six months) unilateral or bilateral;
• Hearing thresholds within normal limits bilaterally or even mild sensorineural hearing loss in the four-tone average (500, 1000, 2000 and 4000Hz);
• Annoyance score of at least four on the Visual Analogue Scale, considered a moderate symptom discomfort;
• Have normality in the Mini Mental State Examination (cognitive screening).

Exclusion criteria

• Apparent speech, psychiatric or neurological changes;
• History of head or brain trauma;
• Objective tinnitus (somatosensory and vascular);
• Present symptoms and/or diagnosis of middle ear involvement;
• Having started a new treatment (pharmacological or therapeutic) or having been diagnosed with a disease of any origin in the last month.
• Be carrying out another intervention for tinnitus during the research;
• Use of electronic assistive hearing devices.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Sequential Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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24 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Study Group - Musical Auditory Training

Experimental group

Description:

For musical training, the protocol proposed by Freire, et al. (2009). This protocol was created for elderly users of hearing aids and in this study it will be used as an instrument for intervention in tinnitus, aiming at auditory training through the hierarchization of auditory skills associated with musicality (FREIRE, 2009). Eight sessions will be held over four weeks, two sessions per week. Sessions will last a minimum of 40 minutes and a maximum of 50 minutes. Victory supra-aural headphones will be used, connected to the computer. There will be calibration, with adjustment of the volume of sounds to the most comfortable level for the individual at the beginning of all sessions.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Treinamento Auditivo Musical

Control Group - Placebo

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Placebo sessions will also be held twice a week for four weeks, totaling eight sessions. To ensure the same conditions for performing musical auditory training, in the placebo treatment, instrumental music will be used concomitantly with the exposure of films without sound, in which patients will be exposed to visual and auditory stimulation during the same time of EG intervention, at least 40 minutes and a maximum of 50 minutes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Placebo