Question: how is tinnitis caused?

Nathan Clarke answered on 20 Jun 2018:

Thanks for the great question 🙂 Science can’t really explain how most tinnitus is caused currently. There have been some leaps forward in understanding in recent years though. For instance, people used to think tinnitus must be something going wrong in the ears (the cochlea). It’s now generally agreed that most tinnitus is actually caused by problems in the brain. We don’t know exactly where though, it could be in the ‘cortical’ areas, where we make plans and concentrate on things. Or it may be in the ‘lower’ levels where we can’t really consciously control things. Or it could be a combination of these things!