Role of Ayurveda in Managing Tinnitus

Tinnitus is one of the annoying disorders which can significantly impair patient’s quality of life and productivity. Although it is not a life threatening disease, but it results into emotional distress, cognitive distress, intrusiveness, auditory and perceptual difficulties, sleep disturbances, and various somatic complaints. Its incidence and prevalence are enhancing day by day. Various pharmacological agents including anticonvulsants, anxiolytics, antidepressants, muscle relaxants etc. are presently used or trialed for its pacification, but there is little evidence of their benefit over harm. The role of invasive and non-invasive Neurostimulation treatments, supposed to be very effective, are also little known. The introduction of Hearing aids and cochlear implantation are also not very much conclusive. No evidence of a significant change in the subjective loudness of tinnitus has been noticed with Cognitive behavioural treatment. In this way, there is a need for making an availability of uniformly accepted, broadly effective treatments capable of drastically decreasing the loudness and impact of tinnitus and withstanding systematic replication. This article is for serving the very purpose. Here, an effort has been made to present the remedial procedures and regimen for the alleviation of tinnitus described in Ayurveda, an ancient healing science of India. In Ayurveda, tinnitus has been delineated in the name of Karnanada. The article also brings about several case studies and clinical studies on tinnitus carried out at different centres/Institutes of Ayurveda.

Psycho-physiological evaluations of low-level impulsive sounds produced by air conditioners

Air conditioners are widely used in buildings to maintain thermal comfort for long time. Air conditioners produce sounds during operation, and air conditioners are regarded as one of the main noise sources in buildings. Most sounds produced by the air conditioner do not fluctuate over time and sound quality of the steady sounds produced by the air conditioner have been evaluated. However, air conditioners sometimes produce low-level and impulsive sounds. Customers criticizes such sounds are annoying when they sleep and they spend time quietly in the living room. The aim of this study was to determine the factors that significantly influence the psycho-physiological response to the low-level impulsive sounds produced by air conditioners. We assessed the A-weighted equivalent continuous sound pressure level (LAeq) and factors extracted from the autocorrelation function (ACF). Subjective loudness, sharpness, annoyance, and electroencephalography (EEG) were evaluated. Multiple regression analyses were performed using a linear combination of LAeq, the ACF factors, and their standard deviations. The results indicated that LAeq, the delay time of the first maximum peak, the width of the first decay of the ACF, and the magnitude and width of the IACF could predict psycho-physiological responses to air conditioner sounds.

Loudness judgements are not necessarily affected by visual cues to sound source distance

The level of the auditory signals at the ear depends both on the capacity of the sound source to produce acoustic energy and on the distance of the source from the listener. Loudness constancy requires that our perception of sound level, loudness, corresponds to the source level by remaining invariant to the confounding effects of distance. Here, we assessed the evidence for a potential contribution of vision, via the disambiguation of sound source distance, to loudness constancy. We presented participants with a visual environment, on a computer monitor, which contained a visible loudspeaker at a particular distance and was accompanied by the auditory delivery, via headphones, of an anechoic sound of a particular aural level. We measured the point of subjective loudness equality for sounds associated with loudspeakers at different visually-depicted distances. We report strong evidence that such loudness judgements were closely aligned with the aural level, rather than being affected by the apparent distance of the sound source conveyed visually. Similar results were obtained across variations in sound and environment characteristics. We conclude that the loudness of anechoic sounds are not necessarily affected by indications of the sound source distance as established via vision.

Cochlear Implant Programming: A Global Survey on the State of the Art

The programming of CIs is essential for good performance. However, no Good Clinical Practice guidelines exist. This paper reports on the results of an inventory of the current practice worldwide. A questionnaire was distributed to 47 CI centers. They follow 47600 recipients in 17 countries and 5 continents. The results were discussed during a debate. Sixty-two percent of the results were verified through individual interviews during the following months. Most centers (72%) participated in a cross-sectional study logging 5 consecutive fitting sessions in 5 different recipients. Data indicate that general practice starts with a single switch-on session, followed by three monthly sessions, three quarterly sessions, and then annual sessions, all containing one hour of programming and testing. The main focus lies on setting maximum and, to a lesser extent, minimum current levels per electrode. These levels are often determined on a few electrodes and then extrapolated. They are mainly based on subjective loudness perception by the CI user and, to a lesser extent, on pure tone and speech audiometry. Objective measures play a small role as indication of the global MAP profile. Other MAP parameters are rarely modified. Measurable targets are only defined for pure tone audiometry. Huge variation exists between centers on all aspects of the fitting practice.