After going to a concert my ears always ring. And I always imagine that the buzzing sound is my ears squealing for help because I have just subjected them to an onslaught of very loud music. But my ears don’t really have a conscience. They couldn’t really be telling me off for enjoying a good concert – could they?

Meet tinnitus
 “Ringing in the ears” is a buzzing sound that you often hear after listening to loud noises. Scientifically, the condition is called tinnitus, and it is defined as the perception of sound when there is no external source. So, you hear the buzzing, but there isn’t any buzzing sound. It’s been predicted that almost everyone suffers from tinnitus at one point in their lives.

 Ringing in your ears isn’t just caused by loud music, but also hearing loss, some medications, stress and tiredness. Medical websites list a whole bunch of medical conditions that may also cause tinnitus. These include cardiovascular disorders, ear infections, and tumours. (Pretty much everything is listed as a possible cause of tinnitus, including the kitchen sink – particularly if you bang your head against it).

With all the possible causes listed, it’s fairly clear that despite tinnitus being so common in the community, researchers aren’t too sure why tinnitus affects us as it does. Plus, the fact that it is associated with so many different medical conditions makes it particularly difficult to study.

How we hear
In general, we hear sound because specialised hair cells, called cilia, in our ear bend from the sound waves created by external noise. When the cilia bend it activates nerves. These nerves send messages to our brain, and allow us to hear music. Cilia are sensitive and won’t bend for any sound. To be activated they need a big sound wave. The body compensates for this by having structures around the ear that can amplify sound waves ensuring that cilia bend, even for quiet sounds.  Because getting sound from its original source to our ears involves a lot of different body parts, scientists are having some trouble working out precisely where the problem lies in tinnitus – is it in the brain as it dissects the sound? Or in the hair cells? Or, perhaps, those mechanical structures that should be amplifying sound are actually amplifying nothing?

Blaming the brain
In the brain, tinnitus, as a sound, is treated the same as external sounds. Our brain lights up in the same areas when we “hear” tinnitus as when we hear real music (even though there is no external source of sound in tinnitus). Because of this phenomenon, the scientists, Eggermont and Sininger, proposed that ringing in ours ears might come from neurons in the central nervous system misfiring, and sending out a signal to the brain that there is a sound, when there isn’t. Under this theory, when we hear music for a lengthy period of time our neurons get used to firing, and even once the music stops, they will keep on firing.

Blaming the amplifiers
Other scientists believe that the problem of tinnitus comes from the ear, not neurons in the central nervous system. They propose that the bones and structures surrounding the ear are a little out of wack when we experience tinnitus. While these structures are supposed to be amplifying external sounds for our brains to sense, they are picking up noises that don’t exist. But since there are many bones and mechanical structures that all help to amplify sound waves, deciphering which particular structure has gone awry to produce that buzzing sound is another scientific dilemma.

A hairy issue
 There are other theorists that reckon that the underlying cause of tinnitus is the loss of hair cells. Listening to loud music kills off our hair cells, and without these we can’t hear. As we lose hair cells, nerves have been shown to fire, sending messages to the brain that there is noise. This theory, called the ‘‘edge effect’’ theory (which sounds a lot like my “screaming to their death” theory) could explain why tinnitus is frequently associated with hearing loss.

It looks like buzzing in the ear could be caused by anything related to how we hear: our neurons, the bones in our ear, or the little hair cells that allow us to hear. While scientists are still working on the answer I suggest you keep your ear to the grindstone.

Sound advice: how to avoid tinnitus

• When going to a concert wear earplugs. Although we don’t know the precise reason we hear buzzing in the ears, it is well accepted that listening to very loud music is one cause of tinnitus. Ear plugs dampen the sound and can also protect your little cilia from harm.