Increased Resting-State Cerebellar-Cerebral Functional Connectivity Underlying Chronic Tinnitus

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Wenqing Xia¹  Jin-Jing Xu²  Han Lv³  Xindao Yin⁴  Fan Bo⁴  Cun-Nan Mao⁴  Yuan Feng⁴  Huiyou Chen⁴  Yu-Chen Chen⁴ 

[1] Department of Endocrinology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China;Department of Otolaryngology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China;Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China;Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China;

关键词: tinnitus;    cerebellum;    functional connectivity;    resting-state fMRI;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnagi.2018.00059

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Purpose: Chronic subjective tinnitus may arise from aberrant functional coupling between the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex. To explore this hypothesis, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to illuminate the functional connectivity network of the cerebellar regions in chronic tinnitus patients and controls.Methods: Resting-state fMRI scans were obtained from 28 chronic tinnitus patients and 29 healthy controls (well matched for age, sex and education) in this study. Cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity was characterized using a seed-based whole-brain correlation method. The resulting cerebellar functional connectivity measures were correlated with each clinical tinnitus characteristic.Results: Chronic tinnitus patients demonstrated increased functional connectivity between the cerebellum and several cerebral regions, including the superior temporal gyrus (STG), parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), and precentral gyrus. The enhanced functional connectivity between the left cerebellar Lobule VIIb and the right STG was positively correlated with the Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaires (THQ) score (r = 0.577, p = 0.004). Furthermore, the increased functional connectivity between the cerebellar vermis and the right STG was also associated with the THQ score (r = 0.432, p = 0.039).Conclusions: Chronic tinnitus patients have greater cerebellar functional connectivity to certain cerebral brain regions which is associated with specific tinnitus characteristics. Resting-state cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity disturbances may play a pivotal role in neuropathological features of tinnitus.

【 授权许可】

Unknown