Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 20;9(1):19552. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-56127-1.
Subjective tinnitus is an auditory phantom perceptual disorder without an objective biomarker. Bothersome tinnitus in single-sided deafness (SSD) is particularly challenging to treat because the deaf ear can no longer be stimulated by acoustic means. We contrasted an SSD cohort with bothersome tinnitus (TIN; N = 15) against an SSD cohort with no or non-bothersome tinnitus (NO TIN; N = 15) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). All study participants had normal hearing in one ear and severe or profound hearing loss in the other. We evaluated corticostriatal functional connectivity differences by placing seeds in the caudate nucleus and Heschl's Gyrus (HG) of both hemispheres. The TIN cohort showed increased functional connectivity between the left caudate and left HG, and left and right HG and the left caudate. Within the TIN cohort, functional connectivity between the right caudate and cuneus was correlated with the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) relaxation subscale. And, functional connectivity between the right caudate and superior lateral occipital cortex, and the right caudate and anterior supramarginal gyrus were correlated with the TFI control subscale. These findings support a striatal gating model of tinnitus and suggest tinnitus biomarkers to monitor treatment response and to target specific brain areas for innovative neuromodulation therapies.
主观性耳鸣是一种没有客观生物标志物的听觉幻觉感知障碍。单侧聋（SSD）患者的耳鸣尤其难以治疗，因为失聪的耳朵不能再通过声学手段得到刺激。我们使用静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI），将有恼人耳鸣（TIN；N=15）的 SSD 患者与无耳鸣或非恼人耳鸣（NO TIN；N=15）的 SSD 患者进行了对比。所有研究参与者的一只耳朵听力正常，另一只耳朵则有严重或极重度听力损失。我们通过在大脑左右半球的尾状核和 Heschl 回（HG）中放置种子，评估了皮质纹状体功能连接的差异。TIN 组显示左尾状核与左 HG、左和右 HG 与左尾状核之间的功能连接增加。在 TIN 组中，右尾状核与楔前叶之间的功能连接与 Tinnitus Functional Index（TFI）放松子量表呈正相关。并且，右尾状核与上外侧枕叶皮质和右尾状核与前上缘回之间的功能连接与 TFI 控制子量表呈正相关。这些发现支持耳鸣的纹状体门控模型，并提示可以使用耳鸣生物标志物来监测治疗反应，并针对特定的大脑区域进行创新的神经调节治疗。
