21/11/2020 AI that can diagnose tinnitus from brain scans may improve treatment | New Scientist

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AI that can diagnose tinnitus from brain scans may

improve treatment

HEALTH 18 November 2020

By Donna Lu

Brain scans could help an AI diagnose tinnitus

Mehrnaz Shoushtarian

An arti cial intelligence that can diagnose tinnitus based on the results of brain imaging,
rather than subjective tests, may help improve treatments for the condition.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2259989-ai-that-can-diagnose-tinnitus-from-brain-scans-may-improve-treatment/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_cam… 1/9
21/11/2020 AI that can diagnose tinnitus from brain scans may improve treatment | New Scientist

Mehrnaz Shoushtarian at the Bionics Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and her colleagues
have developed an algorithm that can detect whether a person has tinnitus, and also how
severe it is.

The AI can spot the presence of tinnitus with 78 per cent accuracy, and distinguish between
mild and severe forms with 87 per cent accuracy.
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Chronic tinnitus affects around 15 per cent of adults. The condition is usually diagnosed by a
hearing test, by self-reporting or based on a subjective questionnaire.

First, the team used a non-invasive neuroimaging technique known as functional near-
infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, on 25 people with chronic tinnitus and 21 people without the
condition. This uses infrared light to measure blood ow and oxygen levels in certain brain
regions, which correspond to brain activity.

Read more: Stimulating the ears and tongue may reduce severity of tinnitus

The team measured fNIRS signals while participants were presented with both visual and
auditory stimuli: a display of circular checkerboard patterns and 15-second segments of
noise.

Many visual-auditory neural pathways interact, both in people with and without hearing
impairments, says Shoushtarian. Previous research has shown that people with tinnitus have
reduced activity in the cuneus, a brain region involved in visual processing.

The people with tinnitus were asked to rate how loud and annoying their condition was.
These results were correlated with the patterns of brain activity based on their fNIRS signals.

The researchers found that people with more severe tinnitus had higher levels of background
connectivity between certain brain regions. In those with louder tinnitus, brain responses to
both visual and auditory stimuli were signi cantly reduced. The team thinks this is because
the increased background neural activity in people with tinnitus affects the brain’s ability to
respond.

The researchers then trained an algorithm on the fNIRS and tinnitus severity results. The fact
that the AI can objectively distinguish between mild and severe tinnitus may help to improve
treatment for the condition, says Shoushtarian. Currently, it is dif cult to assess how
successful treatments are because the results rely on subjective reports from a person over
time.
Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241695

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2259989-ai-that-can-diagnose-tinnitus-from-brain-scans-may-improve-treatment/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_cam… 2/9
21/11/2020 AI that can diagnose tinnitus from brain scans may improve treatment | New Scientist

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