TNF and Tinnitus: Elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-1β have also been observed in the IC and medial geniculate body (MGB), a structure that integrates auditory inputs from the IC, reticular nucleus, and limbic structures while projecting to the auditory cortex, and TNF-α knock-out mice do not develop noise-induced tinnitus (Henton and Tzounopoulos, 2021).