Husain Fatima T, Akrofi Kwaku, Carpenter-Thompson Jake R, Schmidt Sara A
Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901S, Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States; Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, United States.
Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901S, Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States.
Brain Res. 2015 Sep 16;1620:81-97. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.05.010. Epub 2015 May 18.
Generation and persistence of tinnitus following hearing loss may be due to aberrant engagement of attention. Here, functional MRI was used to determine differences in auditory and visual attention processing in adults with tinnitus and hearing loss compared to two age-matched control groups, one with matched hearing loss and the other with normal hearing thresholds. Attentional processing was investigated using a short-term memory task with varying loads, employing unfamiliar Korean letters in the visual condition and non-speech sounds in the auditory condition. We found similar behavioral response across the three groups for both modalities and tasks. For the auditory modality, the response of the attention network was suppressed in the tinnitus group compared to the control groups for both task loads, with the effect being more pronounced at high load. In contrast, in the visual modality, the tinnitus group exhibited greater response of the attention network, regardless of memory load, compared to the control groups. The results increase our understanding of the neural mechanisms of tinnitus and suggest that interventions that manipulate attention, especially in the visual domain, should be further investigated.
听力损失后耳鸣的产生和持续可能归因于注意力的异常参与。在此，功能磁共振成像被用于确定耳鸣且听力损失的成年人与两个年龄匹配的对照组相比，在听觉和视觉注意力处理方面的差异，其中一个对照组听力损失程度匹配，另一个对照组听力阈值正常。使用具有不同负荷的短期记忆任务来研究注意力处理，在视觉条件下采用不熟悉的韩文字母，在听觉条件下采用非语音声音。我们发现，在两种模式和任务中，三组的行为反应相似。对于听觉模式，在两种任务负荷下，耳鸣组注意力网络的反应相比于对照组均受到抑制，在高负荷时这种效应更为明显。相比之下，在视觉模式中，无论记忆负荷如何，耳鸣组相比于对照组均表现出注意力网络更强的反应。这些结果增进了我们对耳鸣神经机制的理解，并表明应进一步研究操纵注意力的干预措施，尤其是在视觉领域。
