Tinnitus Synthesis: Fluctuant and Stable Matches to the Pitch of Tinnitus.

Five subjects mimicked the sensation caused by their tinnitus with a complex sound pattern consisting of the sum of sine waves. The imitation tinnitus was generally broadband, spanning an average of 2.94 kHz. Measures of the pitch of the tinnitus were made using both a forced-choice double-staircase (FCDS) task and a method of adjustment (MOA) task. Even tinnitus portrayed as broadband was matched reliably using a FCDS task, presumably because all but one component of the tinnitus was ignored. With the MOA task, successive matches to the predominant tinnitus pitch were fluctuant, presumably because disparate components of the tinnitus were subsequently matched. Because tinnitus is a broad-band signal, clinical trials evaluating the effect of a treatment on tinnitus should involve assessing changes occurring at any location in tinnitus spectrum.