Gray Matter Atrophy Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Presbycusis: A Comprehensive Morphometric Study

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Qian Xin¹  Wen Ma²  Huaiqiang Sun³  Weibo Chen⁴  Wei Zong⁵  Fei Gao⁵  Bin Zhao⁵  Fuxin Ren⁵  Guangbin Wang⁵  Muwei Li⁶ 

[1] Central Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China;Department of Otolaryngology, Jinan Central Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China;Huaxi MR Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China;Philips Healthcare, Shanghai, China;Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan, China;Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States;

关键词: presbycusis;    cognitive impairment;    hearing loss;    GM atrophy;    surface-based morphometry;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnins.2018.00744

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Presbycusis (PC) is characterized by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at high frequencies and speech-perception difficulties in noisy environments and has a strikingly detrimental impact on cognitive function. As the neural consequences of PC may involve the whole brain, we hypothesized that patients with PC would show structural alterations not only in the auditory cortex but also in the cortexes involved in cognitive function. The purpose of this study was to use surface-based morphometry (SBM) analysis to elucidate whole-brain structural differences between patients with PC and age-matched normal hearing controls. Three-dimensional T1-weighted MR images of 26 patients with mild PC and 26 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) were acquired. All participants underwent a battery of neuropsychological tests. Our results revealed gray matter atrophy in several auditory cortical areas, nodes of the default mode network (DMN), including the bilateral precuneus and inferior parietal lobule, the right posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and the right insula of patients with PC compared to that in the HCs. Our findings also revealed that hearing loss was associated with reduced gray matter volume in the right primary auditory cortex of patients with PC. Moreover, structural alterations in the nodes of the DMN were associated with cognitive impairments in PC patients. Additionally, this study provides evidence that a thicker right insula is associated with better speech perception in patients with PC. Based on these findings, we argue that the onset of PC seems to trigger its own cascade of conditions, including a need for increased cognitive resources during speech comprehension, which might lead to auditory and cognition-related cortical reorganization.

【 授权许可】

Unknown