United States: Tinnitus diagnosis might become possible by studying the subtle facial signals that occur during fight-or-flight reactions, according to recent reports.
Medical studies using video recordings demonstrated that people with tinnitus showed facial muscle movements and enlarged pupils when listening to particular sounds, as published April 30 in Science Translational Medicine.
A new marker to diagnose tinnitus in patients with hearing problems represents the initial discovery made by scientists in this field.
Experts statements
According to the senior investigator Daniel Polley, director of Mass Eye and Ear’s Lauer Tinnitus Research Center in Boston, “Imagine if cancer severity were determined by giving patients a questionnaire – this is the state of affairs for some common neurological disorders like tinnitus,” US News reported.
“For the first time, we directly observed a signature of tinnitus severity,” Polley said. “When we began this study, we didn’t know if sounds would elicit facial movements; so, to discover that these movements not only occur but can provide the most informative measure to date of tinnitus distress is quite surprising,” Polley stated.
What is Tinnitus?
The medical definition of tinnitus involves ear ringing along with other phantom perceptual experiences that include ringing noises such as buzzing or clicking sounds, according to researchers in background notes.
About 12% of the population experiences tinnitus symptoms, along with 25% of adults within the age group of 65 years and older.
About 15% of tinnitus patients struggle so intensely that their sleep pattern becomes disrupted, and both their mental well-being and daily routine function suffer significantly, according to researchers.
Subtle facial gestures linked to the body’s fight-or-flight response could be used to help diagnose people with #tinnitus, a new study says. #publichealth #hearinghealth #hearingloss https://t.co/gqo10km47A
— HealthDay News (@HealthDayTweets) May 1, 2025
Research investigators proposed that severe tinnitus patients spend all their time in a heightened state of fight-or-flight reaction, which triggers fearful responses toward common environmental noises.
The research involved 47 participants with different degrees of tinnitus in addition to 50 healthy control subjects.
The researchers videotaped participants who listened to both pleasant and distressing as well as neutral sounds.
Noisy sounds included both forceful coughs and yelling and the sound of a baby crying.
Artificial intelligence (AI) software scanned videos for fast, unconscious face movements, which included cheek twitching and eyebrow and nostril movements, during the research.