Rosemann Stephanie, Rauschecker Josef P
Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2023 Dec 21;17:1293133. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1293133. eCollection 2023.
Up to 45% of the elderly population suffer from chronic tinnitus - the phantom perception of sound that is often perceived as ringing, whistling, or hissing "in the ear" without external stimulation. Previous research investigated white matter changes in tinnitus patients using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) to assess measures such as fractional anisotropy (a measure of microstructural integrity of fiber tracts) or mean diffusivity (a measure for general water diffusion). However, findings overlap only minimally and are sometimes even contradictory. We here present the first study encompassing higher diffusion data that allow to focus on changes in tissue microstructure, such as number of axons (fiber density) and macroscopic alterations, including axon diameter, and a combination of both. In order to deal with the crossing-fibers problem, we applied a fixel-based analysis using a constrained spherical deconvolution signal modeling approach. We investigated differences between tinnitus patients and control participants as well as how cognitive abilities and tinnitus distress are related to changes in white matter morphology in chronic tinnitus. For that aim, 20 tinnitus patients and 20 control participants, matched in age, sex and whether they had hearing loss or not, underwent DWI, audiometric and cognitive assessments, and filled in questionnaires targeting anxiety and depression. Our results showed increased fiber density in the fornix in tinnitus patients compared to control participants. The observed changes might, reflect compensatory structural alterations related to the processing of negative emotions or maladaptive changes related to the reinforced learning of the chronic tinnitus sensation. Due to the low sample size, the study should be seen as a pilot study that motivates further research to investigate underlying white matter morphology alterations in tinnitus.
高达45%的老年人口患有慢性耳鸣——一种在没有外部刺激的情况下常常被“耳内”感知为铃声、哨声或嘶嘶声的幻听。以往的研究使用扩散加权磁共振成像(DWI)来研究耳鸣患者的白质变化,以评估诸如分数各向异性(一种纤维束微观结构完整性的测量方法)或平均扩散率(一种通用的水扩散测量方法)等指标。然而,研究结果的重叠度极低,有时甚至相互矛盾。我们在此展示了第一项涵盖更高扩散数据的研究,这些数据能够聚焦于组织微观结构的变化,如轴突数量(纤维密度)和宏观改变,包括轴突直径,以及两者的结合。为了解决交叉纤维问题,我们采用了基于固定体素的分析方法,使用了约束球面去卷积信号建模方法。我们研究了耳鸣患者与对照参与者之间的差异,以及认知能力和耳鸣困扰与慢性耳鸣中白质形态变化的关系。为此,20名耳鸣患者和20名对照参与者,在年龄、性别以及是否患有听力损失方面进行了匹配,接受了DWI、听力测定和认知评估,并填写了针对焦虑和抑郁的问卷。我们的结果显示,与对照参与者相比,耳鸣患者穹窿中的纤维密度增加。观察到的变化可能反映了与负面情绪处理相关的代偿性结构改变,或者与慢性耳鸣感觉的强化学习相关的适应不良变化。由于样本量较小,该研究应被视为一项试点研究,旨在推动进一步研究以探究耳鸣潜在的白质形态改变。