Abstract

Tinnitus can be defined as an imaginary sound perception in silence without any acoustic sound source in the external environment. Despite many years of human and experimental animal studies, its mechanism, pathophysiology and etiology are still debated. The perception of tinnitus differs between individuals in terms of intensity, frequency, temporal characteristics, and localization in the head or ear. Although it is easier to detect the presence and characterize tinnitus in humans in clinical practice and research, the use of experimental animal models is inevitable to determine the physiology of tinnitus, which significantly reduces the quality of life, and to study possible treatment methods. Although tinnitus can be induced in experimental animals by using salicylate or exposing them to noise, different techniques and methods have been used to determine the presence of tinnitus and its physiological characteristics. In this review article, it is aimed to present the tinnitus inducing methods in experimental animals used in the literature together with behavioral and electrophysiological methods used to determine the presence of tinnitus.