[petersumskas]

I have tinnitus. I had brain surgery to remove an acoustic schwannoma. The doctor said that I would lose all hearing in the ear due to the unavoidable damage to the acoustic nerve.

Well, at least that will get rid of the tinnitus, I thought.

No such luck! I still have tinnitus.

As such I think there may be more to tinnitus than undetected nerve damage.

It isn’t clear cut though: I have some hearing in that ear after all (to the surprise of the doctor). But the tinnitus came back (or never went away) before any hearing returned.

[janmo]

You are not the only one, in fact removing acoustic nerve is known not to fix the tinnitus / sometimes making it worse. The research has has shown so far that it appears the Tinnitus is coming from within the brain, neurons that have lost the input signal from the acoustic nerve aren't stimulated anymore and in response start to emit noise signals on their own.

[1letterunixname]

This makes sense in a "phantom limb" way.

[eecc]

Makes me wonder if nervous transduction is based on PLL resonant circuits

[dh3]

I have the same tumor on the auditory nerve on both sides (NF2). Had surgery on one side. Lost full hearing on that side (so auditory nerve almost fully severed). Always had tinnitus but after surgery it's gotten much worse on that side. Not unbearable but a constant source of noise. I can see there being some sort of connection between the nerve and tinnitus.

[RobotToaster]

It reminds me of what sometimes happens in an electrical circuit if you disconnect an input and leave it floating.

[1letterunixname]

My dad had one of those. They used to be called acoustic neuromas. He lost hearing in one ear because of the lack of microneurosurgey at the time and the way it was wrapped around CN 8.