Nevertheless the efforts have provided interesting, while counterintuitive, results. One important result is the psychoacoustical characterization has no relation to the level of annoyance evoked by Tinnitus. In other words, two people with similar psychoacoustical description of Tinnitus can differ dramatically in their level of annoyance induced by Tinnitus. One person can ignore his or her Tinnitus and is not aware of it, while someone else is constantly aware and has difficulty focusing their attention on work, sleep, and simply enjoying life. In some cases, the perception of Tinnitus is associated with negative emotions.
Patients treat Tinnitus as an indicator that something is wrong with their hearing or brain.
This negative reinforcement of Tinnitus perception actually enhances the initial responses of the autonomic nervous system evoked by fear. As Tinnitus is continuously present, a strong emotional response may be evoked. Consequently, this increases the time an individual is aware of their Tinnitus and further enhances the aversive emotional response and reaction of the autonomic nervous system. Notably, the involvement of the limbic and autonomic nervous systems are responsible for the annoyance evoked by Tinnitus. The loudness and pitch are irrelevant to a large degree of Tinnitus suffers and normally do not play a significant role.