Table 1.
Summary of somatic manouvers.
| Authors | Body part | Maneuvres (examples) |
|---|---|---|
| Cullington, 2001 | Finger | Moving up and down the middle finger of left hand**# |
| Levine, 1999a; Sanchez et al., 2002, 2007; Abel and Levine, 2004; Levine et al., 2007 | Extremities | Locking the fingers of the two hands together and pulling as hard as possible, or resisting maximal pressure to. Shoulder abduction. Flexion or abduction of the hip. Resisting or not an applied force. |
| Lockwood et al., 2001; Sanchez and Akemi, 2008; Simmons et al., 2008 | Eye | Moving in the vertical or horizontal axis** |
| Cacace et al., 1999a,b; Cacace, 2003; Sanchez and Akemi, 2008 | Cutaneous | Stimulation of a well-defined region—various regions of the hand and fingers (e. g., palm, dorsal web regions, and fingertips)**& |
| Pinchoff et al., 1998; Sanchez et al., 2002, 2007; Abel and Levine, 2004; Levine et al., 2007; Simmons et al., 2008; Latifpour et al., 2009; Won et al., 2013 | Jaw | Clench the teeth, open and close mouth, protrude jaw, slide jaw. Resisting or not an applied force. |
| Levine, 1999a; Sanchez et al., 2002, 2007; Abel and Levine, 2004; Simmons et al., 2008; Latifpour et al., 2009; Won et al., 2013 | Head and neck | Moving the head back and in front and laterally, resisting or not an applied force (against the head in a neutral position or turned to one of the sides). |
| Applying pressure on muscle insertions–esternocleidomastoid, splenius capitis, and posterior auricular. |
All the different voluntary muscle contraction manouvers should be sustained during 5–10 s and performed using a moderate degree of force in a silent environment (Levine, 1999a).
The idiopathic somotosensorial tinnitus will present more relevant modulation with jaw and head-neck manouvers.
Very specific to certain cases of patients subjected to brain neurosurgery or cochlear implantation only rarely is it spontaneous.
The patient reported that the quicker the movement, the more intense the tinnitus loudness, passive or isometric movement did not modulate the tinnitus.
Studies of cutaneous-evoked tinnitus, (using magnetoencephalographic signals and tactile discrimination tests) have found that electrical stimulation of the median nerve and hand region or cutaneous stimulation of skin on various regions of the hand including dorsal web regions and fingertips activate the somatosensory system along with the auditory cortical areas in congenitally deaf individuals (Cacace et al., 1999a,b; Cacace, 2003).