The Dark Side of White Noise.

• Position: TINNITUS

A review published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology questions whether white noise generators--boxes that make static-like sound and often are recommended for relaxation, sleep, masking other noises in the workplace, and tinnitus therapy--may be doing more harm than good.

White noise is a random signal that has equal intensities across frequencies, making it seem ideal for masking or blocking out other noises, for example in the workplace or when trying to sleep. It also frequently is recommended for patients with tinnitus--a persistent ringing in the ears--which affects an estimated 50,000,000 Americans, and is severe and disabling in an estimated 2,000,000. There is no cure, nor any widely accepted course of treatment.

White noise generators first gained popularity in the 1960s. "In the past 50 years, brain scientists have learned a great deal about brain plasticity--how sensory and other inputs change the brain chemically, structurally, and functionally," says lead author Mouna Attarha, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Francisco. "Increasing evidence shows that the brain rewires in a negative manner when it is fed random information, such as white noise.

"Neural inhibition [the ability to filter unimportant information] is reduced; temporal integration times [how quickly the brain processes rapidly changing signals] lengthen; and cortical representations...