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19 Now, supported by Neurological Foundation funding, a University of Otago research team has made a breakthrough discovery. The team, led by Associate Professor Yiwen Zheng, has shown that neuroplasticity – your brain’s ability to change, adapt and rewire itself – is significantly altered in one of the brain areas that’s important for filtering out unimportant sounds (known as auditory gating) in an animal model of tinnitus. This change occurred only in tinnitus-positive animals, and not in tinnitus-negative animals. The researchers also detected chronic neuroinflammation in the same brain area in tinnitus-positive animals. “This is the first set of evidence to connect chronic neuroinflammation, neuroplasticity, auditory gating and tinnitus together,” says Yiwen. “This makes a significant contribution to the current understanding of the mechanisms of tinnitus.” She hopes this could help researchers find treatments in the future. “We are very thankful for the Neurological Foundation funding. It not only made this important research possible, but also provided an opportunity for a young researcher to be trained in the area of auditory neuroscience.” Tinnitus is a conditionwhere people hear ringing, whooshing, roaring or buzzing in their ears that’s not caused by an outside sound. It affects about 1 in 10 people and can be hard to treat, because scientists don’t fully understandwhat causes it in the brain. “Tinnitus can be difficult to live with. This research is exciting, because it could lead to a treatment that’s life-changing for people like me.” Susie McCarty, Auckland Understanding tinnitus: Breakthrough made by joining the dots