As to whether the development of tinnitus from MXE use is related to this same kind of brain damage that seems to have occurred in the participants in this ketamine study not much can be said. I certainly haven't been using MXE chronically. It may not be damage related to neuronal death or degredation, either, perhaps it's just an alteration in organization or a chemical imbalance whose symptom is tinnitus. I don't know for sure whether MXE caused the tinnitus in the first place, either, but it does seem to be connected.