Advancing Neurofeedback in Tinnitus
Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
Background
Tinnitus, the perception of noise or ringing in the ears without an external sound, affects about 15-20% of the western population, with 20% experiencing severe impairment of quality of life. Despite the high prevalence, no effective treatment exists. Neurofeedback (NFB) is being explored as a potential non-invasive treatment by altering neural activity through auditory or visual feedback.
Motivation
Although NFB is gaining attention in neuroscience and clinical practice, significant knowledge gaps remain. Research has not systematically addressed the impact of NFB stimuli and settings, cognitive load, participant motivation, neural target specificity, or long-term effects. Current approaches often use simple feedback methods based on poorly defined frameworks, lacking a clear link between behavioral effects and neural training.
Objectives
Our goal is to develop an effective NFB treatment for tinnitus by:
- Systematically developing advanced feedback stimuli.
- Creating a NFB protocol targeting tinnitus-specific neural areas.
- Evaluating the potential for home-based NFB treatment.
Consortium
Our mutlidisciplinary consortium consists of three research groups from the domains of clinical neuroscience (University of Zurich, UZH, University Hospital Zurich, USZ), cognitive psychology and user experience evaluation (Bern University of Applied Sciences and University of Fribourg, BFH-UFR), and visual and interaction design (EPFL+ECAL Lab, Lausanne).