Influence of silence and auditory attention on auditory perceptions: implications to tinnitus comprehension / Influência do silêncio e da atenção na percepção auditiva: implicações na compreensão do zumbido

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of attention and sustained silence on the emergence of auditory phantom perception in normal hearing adults and social-demographics relations. METHODS: sitting in a sound booth, 66 volunteers (age range 18-65, mean age 37.3) performed three experiments of five minutes each, consecutively and randomly presented. Two deviated attention from auditory system, called Hanoi (H) and Visual Attention (VA) experiments and one drove attention to the auditory system, called Auditory Attention (AA). After each experiment, subjects were asked about their auditory and visual perception. No sound or light change was given at any moment. RESULTS: 19.7% of the subjects experienced auditory perceptions during H, 45.5% during VA and 68.2% during AA, while visual perceptions were experienced by 6.1%, 15.2% and 4.5% of the subjects for the same three experiments. The frequency of auditory and visual perception was statistically different, as well as the frequency of auditory perception among experiments. No significant differences for auditory perceptions emergence for studied variables were found (age, gender, instructional level, hypertension, diabetes, history of dizziness, history of tinnitus, previous exposure to high sound pressure levels). A higher prevalence of auditory perceptions was found on AA experiment. While on H and VA experiments most of the auditory perceptions were described as typical tinnitus sounds (whistle, buzzing, hum, insects and running water), on AA experiment 39,9% of the subjects (n=26) experienced non-typical tinnitus sounds, closer to hallucinatory experiences than to tinnitus. CONCLUSION: Tinnitus and auditory hallucination may occur in a non-clinical population in a silent environment, with no influences from age, gender, instructional level, hypertension, diabetes, history of dizziness, history of tinnitus, previous exposure to high sound pressure levels. Concomitant auditory attention seems to play an important role on the emergence of tinnitus.

ASSUNTO(S)

alucinações. attention tinnitus percepção auditiva zumbido hallucinations. auditory perception atenção

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