针对个人设计的音乐疗法可能有助于减少工业化国家的一种常见听觉病――耳鸣的患者感受到的噪音水平。此前的研究表明，这样一种耳鸣响亮到足以导致占人口的1%到3%的人的生活质量显著下降。这种疾病的原因尚不清楚，但是耳鸣患者的听觉皮层――处理听觉信息的大脑区域――常常受到影响，其受影响程度与感受到的耳鸣程度有关。
Christo Pantev及其同事开发了一种治疗策略，把重点放在通过取消与患者听力丧失有关的音符从而减少耳鸣的程度。这组作者设计了适应患者音乐爱好的音乐疗法，然后移除符合患者耳鸣频率的音频。在聆听了这种修改版的音乐疗法一年后，与聆听相似的安慰剂音乐的耳鸣患者相比，受试者报告说他们的耳鸣程度明显降低。这组作者提出，这种疗法廉价、愉快而且可以用于改善听觉皮层障碍患者的功能。
推荐原始出处：
PNAS December 28, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0911268107
Listening to tailor-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity
Hidehiko Okamotoa,1, Henning Strackea,1, Wolfgang Stollb,2 and Christo Panteva,3
aInstitute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, Westfalian Wilhelms-University, Malmedyweg 15, Muenster, Germany
bDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Muenster University Hospital, Kardinal-von-Galen-Ring 10, 48149 Muenster, Germany
Maladaptive auditory cortex reorganization may contribute to the generation and maintenance of tinnitus. Because cortical organization can be modified by behavioral training, we attempted to reduce tinnitus loudness by exposing chronic tinnitus patients to self-chosen, enjoyable music, which was modified (“notched”) to contain no energy in the frequency range surrounding the individual tinnitus frequency. After 12 months of regular listening, the target patient group (n = 8) showed significantly reduced subjective tinnitus loudness and concomitantly exhibited reduced evoked activity in auditory cortex areas corresponding to the tinnitus frequency compared to patients who had received an analogous placebo notched music treatment (n = 8). These findings indicate that tinnitus loudness can be significantly diminished by an enjoyable, low-cost, custom-tailored notched music treatment, potentially via reversing maladaptive auditory cortex reorganization.
