Presbycusis Disrupts Spontaneous Activity Revealed by Resting-State Functional MRI

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Richard Salvi¹  Guangming Lu²  Jin-Jing Xu³  Xindao Yin⁴  Liang Jiang⁴  Fan Bo⁴  Cun-Nan Mao⁴  Huiyou Chen⁴  Jian-Ping Gu⁴  Yu-Chen Chen⁴ 

[1] Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States;Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China;Department of Otolaryngology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China;Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China;

关键词: presbycusis;    ALFF;    ReHo;    resting-state fMRI;    spontaneous activity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00044

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Purpose: Presbycusis, age-related hearing loss, is believed to involve neural changes in the central nervous system, which is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. The goal of this study was to determine if presbycusis disrupted spontaneous neural activity in specific brain areas involved in auditory processing, attention and cognitive function using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach.Methods: Hearing and resting-state fMRI measurements were obtained from 22 presbycusis patients and 23 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls. To identify changes in spontaneous neural activity associated with age-related hearing loss, we compared the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) of fMRI signals in presbycusis patients vs. controls and then determined if these changes were linked to clinical measures of presbycusis.Results: Compared with healthy controls, presbycusis patients manifested decreased spontaneous activity mainly in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), precuneus and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) as well as increased neural activity in the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), cuneus and postcentral gyrus (PoCG). A significant negative correlation was observed between ALFF/ReHo activity in the STG and average hearing thresholds in presbycusis patients. Increased ALFF/ReHo activity in the MFG was positively correlated with impaired Trail-Making Test B (TMT-B) scores, indicative of impaired cognitive function involving the frontal lobe.Conclusions: Presbycusis patients have disrupted spontaneous neural activity reflected by ALFF and ReHo measurements in several brain regions; these changes are associated with specific cognitive performance and speech/language processing. These findings mainly emphasize the crucial role of aberrant resting-state ALFF/ReHo patterns in presbycusis patients and will lead to a better understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms underlying presbycusis.

【 授权许可】

Unknown