Both auditory and sensory senses are entirely subjective experiences that can change in quality and character.

This sensory information is transferred to the brain via very specific neural pathways. Inversely pathways from the cortex control how something it's felt or heard. Tinnitus and phantom pain can be masked or attenuated by electrical stimulation. Just think of how you rub your finger after you hit it with a hammer or how wearing a walkman can decrease tinnitus. Cutting the sensory or auditory nerve as a treatment of phantom pain or tinnitus is efficacious in less than one out of two patients.

New research techniques such as PET scan and magnetoencephalography confirm that tinnitus and phantom pain are similar phenomena. Both result from a reorganization at the level of the brain or myelum. Reorganization actually is a repair and feedback mechanism that adjusts the brain to the ever changing auditory input. Sometimes this repair mechanism goes wrong in that incorrect connections (synapses) are made between braincells. This creates a mismatch between genetically determined function of the auditory braincell (e.g. generating a 4000 Hz tone) and its input and results in what we hear as tinnitus.

Magnetoencephalographic studies demonstrate that the strength of the tinnitus is directly correlated to the amount of reorganization, similarly to what is known in phantom pain.

This reorganization (gone wrong) can be corrected by neurostimulation (electrical activation of nerve tract). This is common practice in pain treatment, and has just been started in tinnitus treatment.