Abstract
Auditory-somatosensory interactions are characteristic of brain functioning and important for multisensory integration, speech, and suppression of self-generated sounds.
The auditory system is a distributed network of the lemniscal pathway and the extralemniscal pathway. The extralemniscal pathway connects to other sensory systems, as well as the limbic system. Under deafferentation, the extralemniscal system compensates for a degeneration of the lemniscal pathway. Consequently, the auditory system starts ‘listening’ to somatosensory system input, which may generate somatic (=somatosensory) tinnitus, in which changes in the somatosensory system influence tinnitus. This may also be reflected by the fact that tinnitus is associated with different forms of pain.
The mechanism has been partially elucidated and involves connections between the somatosensory and auditory system at all levels of the ascending pathways.
These connections can therapeutically be targeted by physical therapy, botulinum toxin injections, electrical somatosensory stimulation, and bimodal stimulation.