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- Title
Auditory and non-auditory resting-state functional connectivity in normal-hearing individuals with and without tinnitus: RsFMRI study.
- Authors
Minami, S. B.; Oishi, N.; Watabe, T.; Uno, K.; Ogawa, K.
- Abstract
Although tinnitus is commonly associated with hearing loss, some patients have tinnitus without hearing loss. Tinnitus cases with normal hearing have been hypothesized that they are associated with hidden hearing loss. We have reported that the tinnitus patients with hearing loss showed less levels of statistically significant connectivity between the right and left auditory cortex than the control. The purpose of the present analysis was to compare the auditory and non-auditory functional connectivity in normal hearing individuals with and without tinnitus. Nineteen volunteers with normal hearing and 11 tinnitus patients without hearing loss were enrolled in this study. The subjects were evaluated with resting-state fMRI and region of interest (ROI) based correlation analyses were performed using the CONN toolbox version 14 of SPM version 8. Based on the individual level results, the correlation coefficients were converted into beta values and an unpaired t-test was carried out on each connection to determine whether there was a significant difference between groups. Focusing on the auditory-related (Heschl's gyrus, planum temporale, planum polare, operculum, insular cortex, superior temporal gyrus) connections, all but only 4 (2%) pairs of ROIs were significantly correlated in control group. Between the auditory-related ROIs, 91% of all possible in control group remained intact at beta>0.2 threshold, whereas it is reduced to 66% of connections in normal hearing tinnitus group. On the other hands, between non-auditory-related ROIs, the intact rate in control group and tinnitus group were 17% and 15%, respectively, at beta>0.2 threshold. These data suggest that the association of ROIs within control group as defined in the auditory-related networks architecture is generally stronger than normal hearing tinnitus group. On the other hand, focusing on non-auditory- related FC, the control group and the tinnitus group showed almost same levels of functional connectivity. According to this study, tinnitus itself is related to a reduction in the balance of excitatory and inhibitory inputs conveyed to the central auditory system, surprisingly even in the cases of tinnitus without hearing loss. The control group showed higher levels of functional connectivity than the tinnitus group between the auditory-related connections. These data suggest that the association of the auditory-related networks within tinnitus patients is weakened even they have normal hearing.
- Subjects
AUDITORY cortex; BIOLOGICAL transport; STATISTICAL correlation; HEARING; MAGNETIC resonance imaging; T-test (Statistics); TINNITUS; NEURAL pathways
- Publication
Journal of Hearing Science, 2017, Vol 7, Issue 2, p114
- ISSN
2083-389X
- Publication type
Article