Cognitive Communicative Abilities in Tinnitus Patients with Normal Hearing

Background: Tinnitus is a bothersome complain , some studies show that 13-18 percent of the people suffer from tinnitus, almost 5 percent of which, have chronic or bothersome tinnitus. Chronic tinnitus may be accompanied by anxiety, depression, insomnia, and impairment in cognitive functions such as memory and attention. The Aim of this Study: To compare the auditory memory and auditory attention between two groups with and without tinnitus all of them have normal hearing. Methods: This study were performed on 30 tinnitus patients (10 men and 20 women) aged from 20 to 50 years old and 30 healthy volunteers (12 men and 18 women) aged from 21 to 50 years old with normal hearing thresholds. Pure tone audiometry (PTA), auditory continuous performance test (ACPT), Memory for recognition (MR), memory for content (MC) and memory for sequence (MS) were employed for all participants. Tinnitus evaluation and tinnitus handicap inventory questionnaire (THI) was done for the study group only. Results: Comparing the results of ACPT between study and control groups show no statistically significant difference. While comparing the results of memory battery test between both groups were statistically highly significant. Conclusion: Tinnitus decreased the memory battery test scores at the study group in comparison with the control group. Auditory continuous performance test (ACPT) results show no difference between study and control group. Duration of tinnitus affect significantly ACPT results. Bilateral tinnitus affects memory for sequence results. While loudness decreased results of memory for recognition.