An experimental investigation on relation of stress with occurrence of tinnitus

• Main Author: Ng, Chee Seng.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Industrial engineering::Human factors engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/50073
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The project focused on investigating the effect of mental and physical stress to the occurrence of tinnitus. The effects of stress to human physiological change, in terms of neuroendocrine system, are studied and the relation between tinnitus and stress is discussed. Biophysical signals such as Electrocardiogram, Blood Volume Pulse and Skin Conductance are measured to quantify the stress level on the subject. Measurements that quantify the stress deriving from the biophysical signals include heart rate variability, pulse transit time and skin conductivity. Four different stress experiments were designed for different kind of stressor. Sleep deprivation induced stress experiment investigates the effect of short term sleep loss and long term sleep loss to human stress response system and occurrence of tinnitus. Noise exposure stress experiment aims to find out the stress response of subject when exposed to high frequency pure tone noise which resembles the noise produced by tinnitus. The physical activity stress experiment is performed to study and compare with mental stress measurement. Typing activity stress is performed to study the relationship between loudness of background tinnitus and stress. The results from the experiment were analyzed to find the correlation between stress and tinnitus. Experimental measurement are assigned to corresponding stress value and compared with the occurrence of tinnitus. The results show the relation between stress level and occurrence of tinnitus is inconclusive. On the other hand, results show that noise induced stress and physical activity stress has different characteristic compared with stress induced by sleep loss or tiredness. Finally, the tinnitus level typically increases after stress typing activity.