Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No.68, Changle Road, Nanjing, 210006, China.
Department of Otolaryngology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No.68, Changle Road, Nanjing, 210006, China.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2020 Jun;14(3):917-926. doi: 10.1007/s11682-019-00162-z.
Presbycusis, associated with a diminished quality of life characterized by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at high frequencies, has become an increasingly critical public health problem. This study aimed to identify directed functional connectivity (FC) of the hippocampus in patients with presbycusis and to explore the causes if the directed functional connections of the hippocampus were disrupted. Presbycusis patients (n = 32) and age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls (n = 40) were included in this study. The seed regions of bilateral hippocampus were selected to identify directed FC in patients with presbycusis using Granger causality analysis (GCA) approach. Correlation analyses were conducted to detect the associations of disrupted directed FC of hippocampus with clinical measures of presbycusis. Compared to healthy controls, decreased directed FC between inferior parietal lobule, insula, right supplementary motor area, middle temporal gyrus and hippocampus were detected in presbycusis patients. Furthermore, a negative correlation between TMB score and the decline of directed FC from left inferior parietal lobule to left hippocampus (r = -0.423, p = 0.025) and from right inferior parietal lobule to right hippocampus (r = -0.516, p = 0.005) were also observed. The decreased directed functional connections of the hippocampus were detected in patients with presbycusis, which was associated with specific cognitive performance. This study mainly emphasizes the crucial role of hippocampus in presbycusis and will enhance our understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms of presbycusis.
老年性聋，与高频双侧感音神经性听力损失相关，生活质量下降，已成为一个日益严重的公共健康问题。本研究旨在识别老年性聋患者海马的定向功能连接（FC），并探讨如果海马的定向功能连接受到干扰，其原因是什么。本研究纳入了 32 名老年性聋患者（n=32）和 40 名年龄、性别和教育程度相匹配的健康对照者（n=40）。采用 Granger 因果分析（GCA）方法，选择双侧海马的种子区域，以识别老年性聋患者的定向 FC。进行相关性分析，以检测海马定向 FC 中断与老年性聋临床指标的相关性。与健康对照组相比，老年性聋患者的下顶叶、岛叶、右侧辅助运动区、颞中回和海马之间的定向 FC 减少。此外，TMB 评分与左侧下顶叶至左侧海马（r=-0.423，p=0.025）和右侧下顶叶至右侧海马（r=-0.516，p=0.005）的定向 FC 下降呈负相关。老年性聋患者的海马定向功能连接减少，与特定的认知表现有关。本研究主要强调了海马在老年性聋中的关键作用，并将加深我们对老年性聋神经病理学机制的理解。
