Table 2.
Participants overview
| HL (averaged across both ears) at | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pair | sex | TF | int | age | 375 Hz | 1500 Hz | 6000 Hz | TF | |||||
| TP | CT | TP | CT | TP | CT | TP | CT | TP | CT | ||||
| 1*° | F | 8484 | 15 | 57 | 56 | 25.0 | 15.0 | 20.0 | 17.5 | (47.5) | (22.5) | 60.0 | 32.5 |
| 2 | F | 1605 | 30 | 56 | 58 | 7.5 | 12.5 | (15.0) | (12.5) | 12.5 | 52.5 | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| 3 | F | 5297 | 30 | 66 | 66 | 12.5 | 12.5 | 12.5 | 17.5 | (22.5) | (47.5) | 22.5 | 47.5 |
| 4* | M | 788 | 30 | 66 | 64 | 32.5 | 15.0 | (35.0) | (20.0) | 60.0 | 17.5 | 30.0 | 15.0 |
| 5 | F | 1894 | 30 | 28 | 29 | 10.0 | 5.0 | (10.0) | (2.5) | 22.5 | 7.5 | 10.0 | 2.5 |
| 6*° | F | 5000 | 30 | 60 | 61 | 7.5 | 10.0 | 27.5 | 12.5 | (70.0) | (22.5) | 62.5 | 30.0 |
| 7 | M | 5946 | 25 | 65 | 67 | 15.0 | 10.0 | 5.0 | 7.5 | (50.0) | (32.5) | 50.0 | 32.5 |
| 8 | M | 1388 | 30 | 64 | 57 | 22.5 | 15.0 | (12.5) | (7.5) | 20.0 | 17.5 | 22.5 | 10.0 |
| 9 | F | 1214 | 30 | 33 | 41 | 0.0 | 5.0 | (5.0) | (2.5) | 10.0 | 5.0 | 7.5 | 5.0 |
| 10 | M | 726 | 30 | 45 | 50 | (12.5) | (10.0) | 25.0 | 10.0 | 30.0 | 32.5 | 17.5 | 7.5 |
| 11* | F | 10617 | 20 | 48 | 53 | 27.5 | 7.5 | 32.5 | 2.5 | (30.0) | (12.5) | 35.0 | 40.0 |
| 12 | M | 7681 | 30 | 34 | 34 | 10.0 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 17.5 | (10.0) | (17.5) | 7.5 | 22.5 |
| 13*° | F | 3929 | 30 | 38 | 42 | 12.5 | 12.5 | 37.5 | 15.0 | (57.5) | (12.5) | 55.0 | 12.5 |
| 14 | F | 2630 | 30 | 49 | 49 | 7.5 | 5.0 | (12.5) | (7.5) | 20.0 | 20.0 | 22.5 | 40.0 |
| 15° | F | 1644 | 30 | 47 | 53 | 7.5 | 12.5 | (45.0) | (10.0) | 27.5 | 15.0 | 45.0 | 10.0 |
| 16° | M | 8044 | 25 | 43 | 46 | 7.5 | 15.0 | 17.5 | 5.0 | (45.0) | (-2.5) | 50.0 | 15.0 |
| 17 | F | 4410 | 30 | 33 | 30 | 15.0 | 12.5 | 5.0 | 7.5 | (10.0) | (15.0) | 7.5 | 12.5 |
| 18 | M | 6243 | 30 | 42 | 46 | 5.0 | 15.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | (40.0) | (25.0) | 40.0 | 25.0 |
| 19 | M | 10553 | 30 | 37 | 42 | 5.0 | 15.0 | 7.5 | 10.0 | (20.0) | (15.0) | 17.5 | 10.0 |
| 20 | M | 3177 | 30 | 23 | 27 | 15.0 | 15.0 | (7.5) | (7.5) | 12.5 | 2.5 | 10.0 | 5.0 |
| mean | 4564 | 28 | 47 | 49 | 12.9 | 11.3 | 17.6 | 10.1 | 30.9 | 19.5 | 29.4 | 19.5 | |
| p (paired t-test) | 0.03 | 0.38 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 0.03 | ||||||||
| p* (paired t-test) | 0.06 | 0.59 | 0.13 | 0.52 | 0.22 | ||||||||
| p° (paired t-test) | 0.13 | 0.27 | 0.12 | 0.51 | 0.62 | ||||||||
Pair – pair of tinnitus patient (TP) and control participant (CT) who received identical stimulation; sex, F – female, M – male; TF – tinnitus frequency, used as one of the stimulus frequencies; int, intensity (in dB SL) at which the stimuli were played; age (in years); HL – hearing loss in dB HL. Hearing loss is shown for the three frequencies used as standard stimuli in the experiment. Numbers in brackets indicate hearing loss for the standard frequency that was replaced by stimulation at the tinnitus frequency. Our efforts to match patients and controls for sex, age, and hearing loss resulted in two groups that did not differ significantly regarding age or mean hearing loss (averaged across all frequencies tested in the extended audiogram). However, at the level of individual TP-CT pairs the matching was suboptimal in some cases, as revealed by paired t-tests. To ensure that the observed fMRI group differences were not due to these cases of suboptimal matching, we repeated the analyses while excluding the five pairs of participants who showed the largest cumulative differences in hearing loss across all stimuli used in the experiment (marked by a *) and while excluding the five pairs of participants who showed the largest differences in hearing loss at the tinnitus frequency (marked by a °).