<p>Tinnitus is an auditory disorder characterized by the perception of a ringing, hissing or buzzing sound with no external stimulus. Because the most common cause of chronic tinnitus is hearing loss, this neurological disorder is becoming increasingly prevalent in our noise-exposed and ageing society. With no cure and a lack of effective treatments, there is a need for a comprehensive understanding of the neural underpinnings of tinnitus. This dissertation outlines the development and validation of a comprehensive theoretical model of cortical correlates of tinnitus that is used to shed light on the development of tinnitus and to propose improvements to tinnitus treatment strategies.</p> <p>The first study involved the development of a computational model that predicts how homeostatic plasticity acting in the auditory cortex responds to hearing loss. A subsequent empirical study validated a more biologically plausible version of this computational model. The goal of these studies was to determine whether and how a form of plasticity that maintains balance in neural circuits can lead to aberrant activity in the auditory cortex. The final study extends the validated computational model to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework characterizing the potential role of homeostatic and Hebbian plasticity in the development of most major cortical correlates of tinnitus.</p> <p>These theoretical and empirical studies provide a novel and complete description of how neural plasticity in adult auditory cortex can respond to hearing loss and result in the development of tinnitus correlates.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/12585 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | Chrostowski, Michal |
| Contributors | Becker, Suzanna, Bruce, Ian C., Reilly, James, Neuroscience |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | dissertation |
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