Sometimes patient complains of noises in the head. These headnoises have been considered identical with tinnitus aurium by some, while others are inclined to assume that they arise from such pathological conditions as disordered cerebral circulation and neurosis, being distinct from tinnitus.
The author experienced 9 cases of tinnitus cerebri during the 5-month period from April through August, 1980. The patients were predominantly female (with a male-tofemale ratio of 2: 7) and ranged in age from 43 to 78 years with an average of 58. The primary disease was Meniere's disease in all cases.
The tone of the headnoises reportedly varied from case to case.
The subjective sensation of noise was perceived over the entire head in 5 cases, was localized at the center of head in 2 cases and in the occipital region in 2 cases. Characteristically, any of these locations were not grossly one-sided.
In all cases there was a slight to severe hearing loss, moderate in most instances and showed high and low tone loss type audiogram. Most characteristic of these 9 cases was that all of them showed symmetrical type of audiogram.
These results warrant us to assume that by analogy with the hypothesis that the source of noises in tinnitus is sensori-neural hearing loss per se, tinnitus cerebri might be explained as representing a stereo-effect of sounds of the same type and intensity produced in both ears.
