Behavioural and electrophysiological assessment of temporal resolution in normally-hearing listeners with tinnitus

Tinnitus and its pathophysiological mechanisms need more investigation because tinnitus may change the typical processing of sounds in the auditory system. Poor temporal resolution, which is not assessed with conventional subjective tinnitus evaluations, has been reported in some tinnitus sufferers. This study used a gap-in-noise paradigm to assess temporal resolution in tinnitus sufferers using both behavioural and electrophysiologic methods. 19 participants with unilateral tinnitus and a control group without tinnitus participated in this study. Both wide-band and narrow-band signals were used to investigate the temporal resolution of the whole auditory system and at different frequency regions respectively. The results of this study suggest that individuals with tinnitus exhibit poorer-than-normal temporal resolution with both methods especially approaching tinnitus pitches. There was a strong positive association between behavioural and electrophysiological measurements when narrow-band stimuli were used. There was no difference between the acuity of temporal resolution in the tinnitus and the non-tinnitus ears of tinnitus sufferers. This study showed the combination of behavioural and electrophysiological methods may overcome the limitations of psychological methods in the detection of tinnitus pitch. More effective identification of tinnitus pitch could be an important step towards better tinnitus management.