Electromyographic feedback treatment for tinnitus aurium.

The relationship between behavioral severity ratings of tinnitus and electromyographic (EMG) activity recorded at the frontalis muscle was investigated in a single adult female. A within-subject, double reversal experimental design was utilized. Although auditory biofeedback procedures were effective in decreasing and increasing EMG activity at frontalis muscle sites, changes in EMG levels were not systematically related to behavioral severity ratings of either tinnitus or annoyance. Psychoacoustic judgements of tinnitus parameters were similarly unrelated to EMG levels. Psychological strategies were developed by the subject that apparently were associated with increases as well as decreases in EMG activity.