Nobody said it would have to be the cochlea or the eardrum specifically. Involuntary muscle contractions of the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles which are both connected to the ossicular chain of “hearing bones” inside your ear, for example, can generate audible sounds through involuntary contractions that change the tension of the eardrum. When processed by the auditory system, these contractions can be experienced as tinnitus. This is known as muscular tinnitus (https://dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/hearing/tinnitus/ME.html). So what I’m saying is, maybe there are other physical mechanisms of action that we didn’t even think to look for until the physical sound was recorded from a case that was expected to be entirely neurological.
I’m not a medical professional, I just did some reading.
Nobody said it would have to be the cochlea or the eardrum specifically. Involuntary muscle contractions of the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles which are both connected to the ossicular chain of “hearing bones” inside your ear, for example, can generate audible sounds through involuntary contractions that change the tension of the eardrum. When processed by the auditory system, these contractions can be experienced as tinnitus. This is known as muscular tinnitus (https://dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/hearing/tinnitus/ME.html). So what I’m saying is, maybe there are other physical mechanisms of action that we didn’t even think to look for until the physical sound was recorded from a case that was expected to be entirely neurological.
I’m not a medical professional, I just did some reading.