Here is some excellent news fortinnitus sufferers who are still trying to find a cure for tinnitus in their own particular case. Medical researchers have made an astonishing breakthrough in their quest to understand the origins of the condition. It is now possible to accurately pinpoint the part of the brain that is activated when a person is actually experiencing tinnitus problems.

As most of you will know, tinnitus sufferers hear sounds in one or both ears when there is no external noise or interference which could be the obvious cause of the sound.  Many doctors believed that tinnitus was caused by problems with the ears of the sufferer, but these latest research findings would suggest that the noise is actually generated in the brain.

The research team was based at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit where a specialised scanner was used to locate and map the active areas of the brain. This type of scan is called magnetoencephalography (MEG) and it is able to record and measure the minute magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the neuron cells in the brain. These electrical currents are referred to as Intracellular Electrical Currents.

Interestingly, people with tinnitus in both ears had brain activity in both hemispheres of the brain with the strongest recorded activity in the opposite side of the brain to the ear showing the strongest signs of tinnitus. Similar results were found with sufferers experiencing tinnitus in only one ear with most of the activity taking place in the brain in the opposite side to the ear in question.

As the mysteries of the brain are slowly uncovered, conditions such as tinnitus will be better understood and future treatments developed to eradicate this problem once and for all.

The study was led by Dr Michael Seidman, director of neurologic surgery at the Henry Ford Hospital.