| Research Headquarters | | | | Tinnitus is described as the perception of sound in the |
| A study has been conducted at the University of | | | | absence of external sound factors and is able to |
| Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that shown | | | | manifest itself in many ways. According to |
| the potential to significantly improve tinnitus, which is | | | | Mennemeier, the phantom sounds that are alluded to |
| commonly known as the "ringing of the ears". Mark | | | | ringing, hissing, or clicking sounds. These sounds can |
| Mennemeier, Ph.D., and John Dornhoffer, M.D., have | | | | often change according to time due to sleep problems |
| been working side by side on the design of the | | | | and emotional distress. It affects about 17 percent of |
| treatment study of tinnitus. | | | | Americans and is unexplainable. |
| | | | The Game Plan |
| The Brains behind the Operation | | | | TMS is the process of placing a coil on the scalp that |
| Mennemeier is an associate professor of neurobiology | | | | will create a magnetic field over the brain's surface. |
| and the director of the Trans-cranial Magnetic | | | | This magnetic field will penetrate up to two or three |
| Stimulation Laboratory in the Center for Translational | | | | centimeters form the surface of the coil. An electric |
| Neuroscience at UAMS. He is one of the people who | | | | current will be induced by the magnetic field and will |
| conducts the main study of the treatment and gets it | | | | either activate or inhibit the neural activity. |
| evaluated for its supposed effectiveness. | | | | The aim of this is to inhibit excess neural activity that |
| Dornhoffer is one of the many experienced | | | | has been researched to have some participation in |
| professors within the field of otology/neurology at | | | | causing tinnitus. They used a PET scan of the patient's |
| UAMS and is also a very skillful clinician or scientist | | | | brain and looked for far too much neural activity that |
| within the CTN. He evaluates the involved or | | | | occurs with increased blood flow into the temporal |
| participating patients who are interested for entry into | | | | lobe. Right there and then is where they will target the |
| the research study and holds a grant from the Tinnitus | | | | area that has a low frequency TMS measurement |
| Research Consortium that funds the research. | | | | that works for inhibiting the neural activity that further |
| The Target of the Mission | | | | decreases the condition of the tinnitus. |