Stefan Schoisswohl

Universität der Bundeswehr München · Fakultät für Humanwissenschaften

Over the past few years extensive body of research was produced investigating the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rtMS) for the treatment of chronic tinnitus with heterogeneous results. This heterogeneity is exemplified by two recently published large-scale clinical trials reporting different outcomes. Technical aspects of...

Objective To investigate oscillatory brain activity changes following acoustic stimulation in tinnitus and whether these changes are associated with behavioral measures of tinnitus loudness. Moreover, differences in ongoing brain activity between individuals with and without residual inhibition (RI) are examined (responders vs. non-responders). Me...

Background: Personalization of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for tinnitus might be capable to overcome the heterogeneity of treatment responses. The assessment of loudness changes after short rTMS protocols in test sessions has been proposed as a strategy to identify the best protocol for the daily treatment application. Howev...

Introduction So far studies on the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as treatment for tinnitus are inconclusive. Two large scale placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials (RCT) examined the efficacy of low frequency temporal cortex rTMS and report different findings. As the used TMS devices differ in their used pri...

Background Low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is commonly used to inhibit pathological hyperactivity of the auditory cortex in tinnitus. Novel and supposedly superior and faster inhibitory protocols such as continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) were examined as well, but so far there is not sufficient evidence for...

Background Motor cortex excitability may represent the neuronal endpoint of motivational processes and was shown to be modulated by both sexual arousal and deceptive behavior. Aim This is the first study to investigate the influence of lying and sex in heterosexual women and men based on motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) measured while viewing sexual...

In the era of burgeoning high-dimensional data, particularly in fields likemedicine, where data collection is increasing, the need for effective feature selectionin machine learning is paramount. Feature selection helps mitigate challengessuch as noise and irrelevant information, leading to a deeper understanding ofresults and improved predictive c...

Current clinical decision support systems (DSS) are trained and validated on observational data from the target clinic. This is problematic for treatments validated in a randomized clinical trial (RCT), but not yet introduced in any clinic. In this work, we report on a method for training and validating the DSS using the RCT data. The key challenge...

Background: Despite the high frequency of tinnitus and its impact on wellbeing, little is known about its economic burden and no data to our knowledge are available on out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. Methods: In 2022 a survey was conducted on OOP costs of tinnitus. We enrolled 679 participants with slight, moderate and severe tinnitus in Italy, Unite...

Tinnitus, characterized by the perception of sound without an external source, affects a significant portion of the population and can lead to considerable individual suffering, yet understanding of its suppression remains limited. Understanding neural traits of tinnitus suppression may be crucial for developing accurate predictive models in tinnit...

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique capable of inducing neuroplasticity as measured by changes in peripheral muscle electromyography (EMG) or electroencephalography (EEG) from pre-to-post stimulation. However, temporal courses of neuromodulation during ongoing rTMS are unclear. Monitorin...

Objective: There is a high variability in the physiological effects of transcranial magnetic brain stimulation, resulting in limited generalizability of measurements. The cause of the variability is assumed to be primarily based on differences in brain function and structure of the stimulated individuals, while the variability of the physical prope...

Background: Tinnitus is associated with a variety of etiologies, phenotypes, and underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, and available treatments have limited efficacy. A combination of treatments, addressing various aspects of tinnitus, might provide a viable and superior treatment strategy. Methods: In this multicenter, parallel-arm, randomized...

Background Motor hotspot identification represents the first step in the determination of the motor threshold and is the basis for the specification of stimulation intensity used for various Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) applications. The level of experimenters’ experience and the methodology of motor hotspot identification differ between...

Objectives. The study aimed to assess the relationship of tinnitus with hyperacusis with cognitive impairment as indicated by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) tool.Methods. This multicenter cross-sectional study included individuals with chronic tinnitus from the “Unification of Treatments and Interventions for Tinnitus Patients” (UNITI) da...

Introduction Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is used to induce long-lasting changes (aftereffects) in cortical excitability, which are often measured via single-pulse TMS (spTMS) over the motor cortex eliciting motor-evoked potentials (MEPs). rTMS includes various protocols, such as theta-burst stimulation (TBS), paired associat...

Introduction Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects 2–3% of the global population, causing distress in many functioning levels. Standard treatments only lead to a partial recovery, and about 10% of the patients remain treatment-resistant. Deep brain stimulation offers a treatment option for severe, therapy-refractory OCD, with a reported respo...

Aims Motor evoked potentials (MEP) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the primary motor cortex are used as a neurophysiological marker of cortical excitability in clinical and scientific practice. Though, the reliability of this outcome parameter has not been clarified. Using a systematic approach, this work reviews and critic...

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of low-frequency and high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on healthy individuals over the motor cortex. A secondary outcome was the assessment if low-frequency rTMS results in inhibition and high-frequency rTMS results in facilitation. Methods: In t...

Background Tinnitus is a leading cause of disease burden globally. Several therapeutic strategies are recommended in guidelines for the reduction of tinnitus distress; however, little is known about the potentially increased effectiveness of a combination of treatments and personalized treatments for each tinnitus patient. Methods Within the Unifi...

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was shown to be effective in reducing tinnitus-related distress in numerous controlled trials. Real-world data from tinnitus treatment centers are an important addition to controlled trials for demonstrating the ecological validity of the results from the randomized controlled trials. Thus, we provided the real-wo...

The neuromodulatory effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) are often described as inhibiting for low frequency and facilitating for high frequency protocols, leading to the lofi-hife heuristic. However, the data basis for this is inconsistent and reliability of rTMS is barely evaluated. The present study examines the validit...

Tinnitus affects a considerable part of the population and develops into a severe disorder in some sufferers. App-based interventions are able to provide low-threshold, cost-effective, and location-independent care for tinnitus patients. Therefore, we developed a smartphone app combining structured counseling with sound therapy and conducted a pilo...

Background Tinnitus is a leading cause of disease burden globally. Several therapeutic strategies are recommended in guidelines for the reduction of tinnitus distress; however, little is known about the potential increased effectiveness of a combination of treatments and personalized treatments for each tinnitus patient. Methods Within the Unifica...

Previous studies have shown a high prevalence of sleep disturbances in tinnitus patients. However , no study has yet evaluated subjective sleep satisfaction. The present study aimed to investigate associations of self-reported sleep satisfaction with sociodemographic factors, tinnitus-related distress, depression, and self-reported quality of life....

The European School for Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research (ESIT) is an EU-funded doctoral training network. ESIT is a consortium of 12 universities, over 30 commercial and not‐for‐profit organizations, and 15 PhD students providing cutting-edge education across 10 European countries to develop highly knowledgeable and innovative experts in the fi...

Tinnitus is an auditory phantom perception in the ears or head in the absence of a corresponding external stimulus. There is currently no effective treatment available that reliably reduces tinnitus. Educational counseling is a treatment approach that aims to educate patients and inform them about possible coping strategies. For this feasibility st...

Tinnitus is an auditory phantom perception in the ears or head in the absence of a corresponding external stimulus. There is currently no effective treatment available that reliably reduces tinnitus. Educative counseling is a treatment approach that aims to educate patients and inform them about possible coping strategies. For this feasability stud...

Background Schizophrenia is a severe and often difficult to treat psychiatric illness. In many patients, negative symptoms dominate the clinical picture. Meta-analysis has suggested moderate, but significant effects of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) on these symptoms. For treatment of depression a much shorter...

Background Tinnitus represents a relatively common condition in the global population accompanied by various comorbidities and severe burden in many cases. Nevertheless, there is currently no general treatment or cure, presumable due to the heterogeneity of tinnitus with its wide variety of etiologies and tinnitus phenotypes. Hence, most treatment...

Tinnitus is attributed by the perception of a sound without any physical source causing the symptom. Symptom profiles of tinnitus patients are characterized by a large heterogeneity, which is a major obstacle in developing general treatments for this chronic disorder. As tinnitus patients often report severe constraints in their daily life, the lac...

Background: The Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions’ (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) is a doctoral training programme jointly implemented by academic institutions and industries from countries across Europe and beyond. To our knowledge no study has examined the experience of students participating in MSCA-ITNs. This study aims to evaluate and r...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.647285.].

Tinnitus can be a burdensome condition on both individual and societal levels. Many aspects of this condition remain elusive, including its underlying mechanisms, ultimately hindering the development of a cure. Interdisciplinary approaches are required to overcome long-established research challenges. This review summarizes current knowledge in var...

Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation tool potentially modulating pathological brain activity. Its clinical effectiveness is hampered by varying results and characterized by inter-individual variability in treatment responses. RTMS individualization might constitute a useful strategy to...

Background Tinnitus represents a relatively common condition in the global population accompanied by various comorbidities and severe burden in many cases. Nevertheless, there is currently no general treatment or cure, presumable due to the heterogeneity of tinnitus with its wide variety of etiologies and tinnitus phenotypes. Hence, most treatment...

Background: The Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions’ (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) is a doctoral training programme jointly implemented by academic institutions and industries from countries across Europe and beyond. To our knowledge no study has examined the experience of students participating in MSCA-ITNs. This study aims to evaluate and r...

Background: The Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions’ (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) is a doctoral training programme jointly implemented by academic institutions and industries from countries across Europe and beyond. To our knowledge no study has examined the experience of students participating in MSCA-ITNs. This study aims to evaluate and r...

Background: Tinnitus suppression following acoustic stimulation is a well-known phenomenon also termed residual inhibition (RI). Some individuals may experience prolonged RI (PRI), which can last for several hours or even days, after a single short-term acoustic stimulation. Exact mechanisms of this phenomenon are unknown and current evidence anecd...

Tinnitus is the perception of a phantom sound and the patient's reaction to it. Although much progress has been made, tinnitus remains a scientific and clinical enigma of high prevalence and high economic burden, with an estimated prevalence of 10%–20% among the adult population. The EU is funding a new collaborative project entitled “Unification o...

Objective To investigate whether a four-week course of neuronavigated intermittent theta burst stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is superior to the non-neuronavigated F3-EEG method of positioning. Methods We conducted a single-center, two-arm, randomized and double-blinded study (clinicaltrials.gov NCT03953521). 37 inpatients...

Background Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation tool potentially modulating pathological brain activity. Its clinical effectiveness is hampered by varying results and characterized by inter-individual variability in treatment responses. RTMS individualization might constitute a useful strategy to o...

Background: Acoustic stimulation was shown to be effective in short-term suppression of tinnitus. However, tinnitus cannot be suppressed in all patients. Recent insights from mental health research suggests that personality traits may be important factors in prediction of treatment outcomes or improvement of tinnitus over time. No previous acoustic...

BACKGROUND: Tinnitus suppression following acoustic stimulation is a well-known phenomenon also termed residual inhibition (RI). Some individuals may experience prolonged RI (PRI), which can last for several hours or even days, after a single short-term acoustic stimulation. Exact mechanisms of this phenomenon are unknown and current evidence anecd...

Magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG) investigations in tinnitus patients demonstrated anomalous oscillatory brain activity patterns compared to healthy controls. A well-established phenomenon in tinnitus is the possibility to temporary suppress tinnitus following acoustic stimulation, which is termed residual inhibition (RI). The few former...

Background: Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique which uses electrical alternating currents applied at random frequencies. Besides the ability to alter cortical excitability, past research demonstrated that high-frequency tRNS over the auditory cortex can modulate both spontaneous and auditory...

Background Acoustic stimulation was shown to be effective in short-term suppression of tinnitus. However, tinnitus cannot be suppressed in all patients. Recent insights from mental health research suggests that personality traits may be important factors in prediction of treatment outcomes or improvement of tinnitus over time. No previous acoustic...

Tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of a corresponding sound, and the distress caused by it, is rarely a static phenomenon. It rather fluctuates over time depending on endogenous and exogenous factors. The COVID-19 pandemic is a potential environmental stressor that might influence the individually perceived tinnitus distress. Since no...

Background: Past research highlighted the benefits of personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of chronic subjective tinnitus. Objective/Hypothesis: The objective was to investigate the feasibility of rTMS personalization by identifying individually optimal stimulation parameters in test sessions. Particula...

Background: The phenomenon of short-term tinnitus suppression by different forms of acoustic stimulation is referred to as residual inhibition (RI). RI can be triggered in the majority of tinnitus cases and was found to be depending on the used intensity, length or types of sounds. Past research already stressed the impact of noise stimulation as w...

Background: This paper is a review of the literature on electrical stimulation of the ear to treat tinnitus. This method of treatment has been used since the 1970s and different techniques have been explored. The primary aim of this work was to review the litera- ture on electrical stimulation of the ear to suppress tinnitus, with a specific focus...

Introduction: Chronic tinnitus is a condition estimated to affect 10–15% of the population. No treatment has shown efficacy in randomized clinical trials to reliably and effectively suppress the phantom perceptions, and little is known why patients react differently to the same treatments. Tinnitus heterogeneity may play a central role in treatment...

Background: The heterogeneity of tinnitus is substantial. Its numerous pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical manifestations have hampered fundamental and treatment research significantly. A decade ago, the Tinnitus Research Initiative introduced the Tinnitus Sample Case History Questionnaire, a case history instrument for standardised collect...