A method (of treating a patient who has tinnitus) includes: providing to the patient a series of tones including at least a single tone which is at least a half-octave outside a tinnitus frequency of the patient; and applying vagus nerve stimulation to the patient to induce a period of plasticity in a cortex of the patient that is transitory and that represents a transitory opportunity for learning to occur; and wherein the at least a single tone occurs during the transitory opportunity for learning.

A catheter for diagnosing an abnormality of a blood vessel includes an elongated body defining an elongated lumen therethrough; and one or more transducers disposed on an outer surface of the elongated body. One or more transducers are configured to output an electrical signal in response to sound.

Disclosed are a massage device providing a tinnitus treatment program and a control method therefor. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, disclosed is a method by which a massage device provides a tinnitus treatment program. The method by which the massage device provides the tinnitus treatment program comprises the steps of: obtaining tinnitus information about a user; adjusting the magnitude of at least some of a plurality of frequency components included in a raw sound source and then flattening the raw sound source, so as to generate a first processed sound source; reducing the magnitude of at least some of a plurality of frequency components included in the first processed sound source on the basis of the obtained tinnitus information, so as to generate a tinnitus treatment sound source; and providing a tinnitus treatment program in which the generated tinnitus treatment sound source and tinnitus treatment massage are combined.

Hearing management, using a portable device or integrated portable devices, can include generating during a hearing diagnostics phase an audiogram based on responses of a user to signals conveyed to the user. In response to detecting ambient noises during the hearing diagnostics phase, noise cancellation can be performed to cancel the ambient noises in conjunction with conveying the signals to the user. During a hearing enhancement phase, sounds can be captured with the portable device. The captured sounds can be enhanced in real-time during the hearing enhancement phase by amplifying select frequencies of the captured sounds using signal gain. The frequencies can be selected, and the signal gain determined based on the audiogram. The captured sounds, now enhanced, can be conveyed to the user as frequency-enhanced sounds.

A method of generating sounds for reducing an effect of tinnitus is disclosed. The method includes the following steps: acquiring a sound frequency of a tinnitus sound of a user, and playing a plurality of pure tones within a frequency range during a playback time, wherein the plurality of pure tones include a plurality of first pure tones and a plurality of second pure tones; the plurality of first pure tones and the sound frequency are located at a first frequency area, and the plurality of second pure tones are located at a second frequency area; the first frequency area covers X Hz, where 100≤X≤12000, the second frequency area covers the remaining portion of the frequency range excluding the first frequency area, and the plurality of first pure tones accounts for M % of the plurality of pure tones, where 50<M≤90.

A method of treating tinnitus comprising measuring a patient's hearing, determining the patient's hearing loss and the patient's tinnitus frequency using the measurements of the patient's hearing, programming a clinical controller with the measurements of the patient's hearing, selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones, where the therapeutic tones are selected to be at least a half-octave above or below of the patient's tinnitus frequency, setting an appropriate volume for each of the plurality of tones, repetitively playing each of the plurality of therapeutic tones, and pairing a vagus nerve stimulation pulse train with each playing of a therapeutic tone, thereby reducing the patient's perception of tinnitus.

A system for providing multimodal stimulation to a user includes a tactile device including a set of tactile actuators. Additionally, the system can include and/or interface with a user device, a remote computing system, and/or any other devices. A method for multimodal stimulation functions to provide therapy to a user for tinnitus or other conditions, and includes any or all of: receiving a set of inputs; determining a set of outputs; providing the set of outputs to a user; and adjusting any or all of the set of outputs.

A tinnitus management system and a computer-implemented method for managing tinnitus are described. The system comprises a survey developing unit, a progress determining unit, a performance evaluation unit, and a feedback unit. The survey developing unit develops and/or adapts, after a first training section, a subsequent, second training section or a following part of a survey based on a performance indicator determined for the first training section.

A device for determining the frequency of a dominant tone of a tinnitus perceived by a patient. A tone generator plays tones, an input unit receives patient evaluations, and a controller carries out a similarity measurement and a comparison of pairs of tones. The controller controls the tone generator for the similarity measurement to generate successive tones, and, after playing a respective tone, receive patient's evaluation regarding the similarity of the tone to the dominant tone of the tinnitus. The controller also controls the tone generator for the comparison of pairs of tones to play successive pairs of tones, and, after playing a respective pair, receives the patient's evaluation as to which tone of the pair is more similar to the at least one dominant tone of the tinnitus. Using the results, the frequency most similar to the frequency of the dominant tone of the tinnitus can be determined.

Systems and methods for treating hearing loss and/or tinnitus or enhancing hearing to sounds or sound features such as in a noisy environment are disclosed. An apparatus includes a hearing aid and associated electrodes for electrically stimulating a portion near, on or in the ear, where the electrical stimulation is synchronized with a sound input and/or sound output of the hearing aid.