title: Relationship between tinnitus pitch and edge of hearing loss in individuals with a narrow tinnitus bandwidth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Psychoacoustic measures of tinnitus, in particular dominant tinnitus pitch and its relationship to the shape of the audiogram, are important in determining and verifying pathophysiological mechanisms of the condition. Our previous study postulated that this relationship might vary between different groups of people with tinnitus. For a small subset of participants with narrow tinnitus bandwidth, pitch was associated with the audiometric edge, consistent with the tonotopic reorganization theory. The current study objective was to establish this relationship in an independent sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective design using data from five studies conducted between 2008 and 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  From a cohort of 380 participants, a subgroup group of 129 with narrow tinnitus bandwidth were selected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tinnitus pitch generally fell within the area of hearing loss. There was a statistically significant correlation between dominant tinnitus pitch and edge frequency; higher edge frequency being associated with higher dominant tinnitus pitch. However, similar to our previous study, for the majority of participants pitch was more than an octave above the edge frequency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings did not support our prediction and are therefore not consistent with the reorganization theory postulating tinnitus pitch to correspond to the audiometric edge.
authors.affiliation: * National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Unit , Nottingham , UK.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sereda
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Edmondson-Jones
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001299:Audiometry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Audiogram; audiometric edge; multiple regression; narrow bandwidth; tinnitus pitch