I was pleased when the Co-Founders of the Tinnitus Association of Southwestern Ontario, Bethanne Keep and Grant Dobson, approached me in 2015 to become involved in their efforts to advocate for tinnitus sufferers.

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As an Assistant Professor at Western University, I run a research program devoted to uncovering the brain activity that causes tinnitus. Although there is no shortage of tinnitus sufferers willing to serve as research participants, it remains quite challenging to study the neural basis of tinnitus in humans because researchers often lack the complimentary measures of brain activity before tinnitus emerged, and the case history of tinnitus sufferers can vary considerably. To overcome these obstacles, my lab has turned to the laboratory rat.

While it might seem odd to someone suffering from tinnitus that a rat could offer them eventual hope, it is worth noting that rodent models provide some distinct experimental advantages. For example, rodent models offer: (1) consistency in tinnitus induction ( e.g., exposure to a given loud noise exposure); (2) the ability to compare brain activity before and after tinnitus emergence, and; (3) a preclinical platform on which to evaluate the potential efficacy of novel pharmaceuticals at silencing tinnitus or preventing its onset following hearing trauma.

Over the past few years, my colleagues and I have endeavored to develop the world's foremost rat model of tinnitus. Ultimately, we have designed novel behavioural testing paradigms which allow us to train rats to "tell us" whether or not they are experiencing tinnitus. To summarize, rats learn to perform a distinct behaviour (e.g., press a lever) when sound is presented, and a different behaviour during quiet conditions. Then, following noise or drug exposure, if the animal mistakenly behaves during quiet conditions as though it was "hearing" a real acoustic stimulus, we can conclude that the animal is experiencing tinnitus. My lab is not alone in using such behavioural training to screen laboratory animals for tinnitus; however, my colleagues and I were first researchers in the world to record brain activity at the very moment when rats reported whether or not they were experiencing tinnitus. Ultimately, by comparing the neural activity before and after tinnitus induction, our ongoing studies seek to reveal the underlying cellular mechanisms that manifest as tinnitus.

Related to the above-mentioned experiments, our future studies will use our behavioural paradigm to evaluate whether a novel small molecule (patented by our collaborators) is able to protect against noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. It is crucial that preclinical research investigate newly developed pharmaceuticals, because, at present, there is no widely-accepted drug capable of protecting against trauma-induced tinnitus.

In closing, I wish to sincerely thank the Tinnitus Association of Southwestern Ontario and their many advocates for continued encouragement and support as my lab strives to better understand tinnitus pathophysiology and its prevention.

Kind regards, 
Brian L. Allman, PhD