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. 2023 May 18:4:116-118.
doi: 10.1109/OJEMB.2023.3275051. eCollection 2023.

Reverse Correlation Uncovers More Complete Tinnitus Spectra

Alec Hoyland  1   2 , Nelson V Barnett  3 , Benjamin W Roop  4 , Danae Alexandrou  5 , Myah Caplan  3 , Jacob Mills  3 , Benjamin Parrell  6 , Divya A Chari  7   8 , Adam C Lammert  3
Affiliations

Reverse Correlation Uncovers More Complete Tinnitus Spectra

Alec Hoyland et al. IEEE Open J Eng Med Biol. .

Abstract

Goal: This study validates an approach to characterizing the sounds experienced by tinnitus patients via reverse correlation, with potential for characterizing a wider range of sounds than currently possible. Methods: Ten normal-hearing subjects assessed the subjective similarity of random auditory stimuli and target tinnitus-like sounds ("buzzing" and "roaring"). Reconstructions of the targets were obtained by regressing subject responses on the stimuli, and were compared for accuracy to the frequency spectra of the targets using Pearson's [Formula: see text]. Results: Reconstruction accuracy was significantly higher than chance across subjects: buzzing: [Formula: see text] (mean [Formula: see text] s.d.), [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]; roaring: [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]; combined: [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]. Conclusion: Reverse correlation can accurately reconstruct non-tonal tinnitus-like sounds in normal-hearing subjects, indicating its potential for characterizing the sounds experienced by patients with non-tonal tinnitus.

Keywords: Reverse correlation; behavioral assay; tinnitus.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Diagram of the experimental protocol. Subjects listen to a series of random stimuli, each preceded by a target sound. Subjects compare the stimulus to the target, and respond either “yes” or “no” depending on their perceived similarity. The recorded stimulus-response pairs are used to form an estimate of the target.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Human reconstruction accuracy is significantly above baseline, but is not optimal. Random, human, and ideal reconstruction accuracies are shown as violin plots with box plots overlaid. The median is a white dot, the ordinate of the blue points are the Pearson's formula image values.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Reconstructions of the tinnitus spectra capture many salient features of the target sounds. The black trace indicates the target, while colored traces plot exemplar human reconstructions. The top row shows standardized power levels within each frequency bin. The bottom row maps the 8-dimensional bin domain to a 11025-dimensional frequency domain with the unbinned power spectral density of the targets shown in gray.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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