Tinnitus evoked by finger movement: Brain plasticity after peripheral deafferentation

Tinnitus, the sensation of sound in the absence of external acoustic stimuli, is a common problem. Most patients with tinnitus have no control over the loudness or characteristics of their tinnitus; however, a few individuals can alter their tinnitus voluntarily by moving parts of their bodies. The rare phenomenon of gaze-evoked tinnitus1 describes the ability to control tinnitus using eye movements; in total, 17 cases have been reported. Even more rare, two patients experienced cutaneous-evoked tinnitus2; they could control their tinnitus by touching either their fingers or the top of their hand. In all reported patients except one, gaze-evoked or cutaneous-evoked tinnitus occurred following unilateral surgical deafferentation of the auditory periphery after removal of space-occupying lesions of the cerebellopontine angle. One gaze-evoked tinnitus case involved a patient with a meningeal metastasis of a malignant melanoma3; this woman could …