MicroTransponder, a Dallas-based company specialized in treating various brain afflictions via neurostimulants, wants to apply their technology used in chronic pain relief to cure tinnitus, which causes phantom sounds to be heard out of the blue by millions of people worldwide.

The way this technology works is by stimulating the vagus nerve, one of the most popular nerves linked directly to our brain. And by popular I mean it has been previously tested with shock therapy in order to cure other afflictions. Previous similar “stimulators” were created in order to treat other conditions and, this time, the ringing in your ears might go away if you use MicroTranspoder's VNS shock implant.

This VNS implant has been successfully tested on animals and the company announces that they are going to attempt this technique on humans as well. What scientists assume right now about tinnitus is that it appears because our brain is naturally trying to compensate for hearing loss, though this has not yet been confirmed. By stimulating the vagus nerve, Michael Kilgard, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas, thinks he can reverse this behavior by adding sounds to the neurostimulants.

A few months ago, MicroTransponder raised $10 million to begin the tests of their brain stimulating technology used for the cure of chronic pain and to obtain FDA clearance. They are probably going to use this money to further develop wireless cures for other diseases as well and, for now, tinnitus still remains an incurable disorder.

The vagus nerve is a direct link to our brain and supposedly responsible for other afflictions too. The research done right now in this domain plays an important role in better understanding our brain and the mysterious ways in which it works. You can read more about this subject on Technology Review.


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