An extreme case of brain hyperactivity is an epileptic fit where all the brain cells fire together, the excitation having spread from a small part of the brain. Sometimes the excitation remains localised when we have partial seizures. If such a localised hyper-excitation exists anywhere in those parts of the brain that are concerned with hearing, then the result would be tinnitus and tinnitus would last while the excitation persisted. Brain connections Phantom pain can appear to exist in a limb that has been accidentally or surgically removed. When a limb is removed, a substantial part of the brain becomes redundant - no job to do.
Most people suffering from tinnitus have some degree of deafness, caused by the death of hair cells.
The nerve cells that were connected to such hair cells become redundant and could theoretically generate tinnitus. New Drugs lt is likely that many, if not most of these mechanisms I have described exist in tinnitus patients and this variety of causations accurately reflects the magnitude of the problem of finding a drug or drugs that are effective in the control of tinnitus. Research into new drugs or better use of existing drugs is usually done in animals or tissue culture, where cells are grown in flasks or test tubes. Various disease states, like Parkinson's, epilepsy and diabetes, can be induced in animals that can then be used to assess the effectiveness of drugs and to investigate their mode of action. With one exception, there are no animal models of tinnitus and, unfortunately, single cells grown in tissue culture flasks don't even hear, let alone suffer tinnitus.