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A 7 Tesla fMRI investigation of human tinnitus percept in cortical and subcortical auditory areas
- Source :
- NeuroImage: Clinical, Vol 25, Iss, Pp-(2020), NeuroImage : Clinical, NeuroImage: Clinical, 25:102166. ELSEVIER SCI LTD
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Highlights • UHF-fMRI is used to study frequency-specific processing in tinnitus patients. • Control patients are hearing-loss matched to tinnitus patients. • MGB and auditory cortex display reduced frequency selectivity with tinnitus. • Thalamocortical and cortico-cortical connectivity is reduced with tinnitus. • UHF-fMRI is relevant for investigating subcortical auditory regions in tinnitus.<br />Tinnitus is a clinical condition defined by hearing a sound in the absence of an objective source. Early experiments in animal models have suggested that tinnitus stems from an alteration of processing in the auditory system. However, translating these results to humans has proven challenging. One limiting factor has been the insufficient spatial resolution of non-invasive measurement techniques to investigate responses in subcortical auditory nuclei, like the inferior colliculus and the medial geniculate body (MGB). Here we employed ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (UHF-fMRI) at 7 Tesla to investigate the frequency-specific processing in sub-cortical and cortical regions in a cohort of six tinnitus patients and six hearing loss matched controls. We used task-based fMRI to perform tonotopic mapping and compared the magnitude and tuning of frequency-specific responses between the two groups. Additionally, we used resting-state fMRI to investigate the functional connectivity. Our results indicate frequency-unspecific reductions in the selectivity of frequency tuning that start at the level of the MGB and continue in the auditory cortex, as well as reduced thalamocortical and cortico-cortical connectivity with tinnitus. These findings suggest that tinnitus may be associated with reduced inhibition in the auditory pathway, potentially leading to increased neural noise and reduced functional connectivity. Moreover, these results indicate the relevance of high spatial resolution UHF-fMRI for the investigation of the role of sub-cortical auditory regions in tinnitus.
- Subjects :
- Male
Inferior colliculus
Auditory Pathways
Ultra-high field MRI
HYPERACTIVITY
Audiology
lcsh:RC346-429
NOISE
Tinnitus
0302 clinical medicine
Thalamus
CONNECTIVITY
BRAIN
PLASTICITY
Cerebral Cortex
medicine.diagnostic_test
05 social sciences
Regular Article
Middle Aged
Medial geniculate body
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
medicine.anatomical_structure
Neurology
lcsh:R858-859.7
Female
medicine.symptom
psychological phenomena and processes
Adult
CORTEX
medicine.medical_specialty
IMAGES
Cognitive Neuroscience
Auditory area
lcsh:Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics
Auditory cortex
050105 experimental psychology
03 medical and health sciences
Connectome
otorhinolaryngologic diseases
medicine
Humans
Auditory pathway
Auditory system
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging
Resting-state connectivity
lcsh:Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Auditory Cortex
business.industry
HEARING-LOSS
MODEL
nervous system
Auditory nuclei
Neurology (clinical)
Nerve Net
Tonotopic maps
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
business
HIGH-RESOLUTION
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 22131582
- Volume :
- 25
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- NeuroImage: Clinical
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0b3fbeaef5524562877413753a052d80