During the study, you will:

- Complete quick standard questionnaires about your reactions to everyday noises in your environment;

- Have a hearing test (pure tone audiogram);

- Undergo a quick computerised task to establish a comfortable volume of a set of tones. This will be the loudness of the tones (beeps) to be used in the EEG experiment;

- An EEG session (Electroencephalogram - a recording of brain activity). In this, a fabric cap is placed over your head, and a number of spots of gel placed in this (a similar consistency to hair gel, which will remain in your hair until washed out with water). This cap records the electrical signals your brain naturally generates. This takes around 30 minutes to set up, and then runs for around 60 minutes. The most important things you need to do during the EEG session are to stay awake, keep your eyes open, and keep your head, face, neck and body in a relaxed state.

-   During the EEG recording, you will be asked to do 3 tasks in a randomised order:

• A 10 minute visual task (x2), in which you will need to look at moving dots on the screen and decide whether they are moving randomly or in a specific direction;  
• A 10 minute auditory task (x2), in which you will need to listen out for gaps in the sequence of beeps and press a button when you can hear the gap;
• A 10 minute period (x2) in which you can watch a subtitled movie of your choice.

By taking part, you would be helping to better understand differences between participants with and without tinnitus, in a way that might lead to improved treatments. Some volunteers find it an interesting experience to take part in this type of research. We also will reimburse any reasonable travel expenses incurred, on top of which volunteers receive a participation fee of £15.

Exclusion criteria:

•  The presence of tinnitus that is not due to any external source
• Tinnitus due to a physical sound source in the body, such as turbulent blood flow or muscle contractions in the middle ear.
• Meniere’s disease
•  Any abnormality of brain structure (e.g. stroke, tumour), or other neurological disorder (e.g. multiple sclerosis or epilepsy)
• The ongoing use of sedating medications, or certain other nerve-acting medications
• A current mental health condition of sufficient severity to prevent certain activities of everyday life.