Tinnitus background noise to one that can be heard even over loud external sounds. The specific type of tinnitus called pulsatile tinnitus is characterized by hearing the sounds of one's own pulse or muscle contractions, which is typically a result of sounds that have been created by the movement of muscles near to one's ear, or the sounds are related to blood flow of the neck or face. Due to variations in study designs, data on the course of tinnitus showed few consistent results. Generally the prevalence increased with age in adults, whereas the ratings of annoyance decreased with duration. Persistent
Tinnitus retraining therapy with tinnitus have a comorbid psychological injury or illness (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, stress, dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint, etc.) that can exacerbate the tinnitus. It has been proposed that tinnitus is caused by mechanisms that generate abnormal neural activity, specifically one mechanism called discordant damage (dysfunction) of outer and inner hair cells of the cochlea. The psychological basis for TRT stems from the fact that the brain exhibits a high level of plasticity. In turn, this allows it to adjust to any sensory signals as long as they do not lead to negative effects.