Empirical tests demonstrating two coexisting sources of tinnitus: a case study.

Empirical tests for a relation between tinnitus and spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) have been previously presented (Penner & Burns, 1987). Modification of these tests, however, is necessary for the special case reported here in which a female subject has tinnitus consisting of an annoying SOAE in the right ear and tinnitus unrelated to SOAEs in the left ear. This case is of interest because it provides a forum for extending the tests of Penner and Burns (1987) and because the extended tests can be used to prove that one subject's tinnitus can have two distinct sources.