Abstract

Background:

Alpha/delta neurofeedback has been shown to be a potential treatment option for chronic subjective tinnitus. Traditional neurofeedback approaches working with a handful of surface electrodes have been criticized, however, due to their low spatial specificity.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an innovative tomographic neurofeedback protocol that combines neural activity measured across the whole scalp with sLORETA source estimation.

Methods:

Forty-eight tinnitus patients participated in 15 neurofeedback training sessions as well as extensive pre, post, and follow-up testing. Patients were randomly assigned to either a tomographic (TONF) or a traditional electrode-based neurofeedback (NTNF) group. Main outcome measures of this study were defined as tinnitus-related distress measured with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), tinnitus loudness, and resting-state EEG activity in trained frequency bands.

Results:

For both groups a significant reduction of tinnitus-related distress and tinnitus loudness was found. While distress changes remained persistent irrespective of group, loudness levels returned to baseline in the follow-up period. No significant between-group differences between the 2 neurofeedback applications (TONF vs. NTNF) were found, which suggests a similar contribution to symptom improvement. The trained alpha/delta ratio increased significantly over the course of the training and remained stable in the follow-up period. This effect was found irrespective of group on both surface and source levels with no meaningful differences between the 2 groups.

Conclusions:

Our study shows that a tomographic alpha/delta protocol should be considered a promising addition to tinnitus treatment but that more individually specific neurofeedback protocols should be developed.

中文翻译：

---

将神经反馈与源估计相结合：评估用于慢性耳鸣的sLORETA神经反馈方案。

摘要

背景：

阿尔法/三角神经反馈已被证明是慢性主观耳鸣的潜在治疗选择。然而，由于它们的低空间特异性，已经批评了使用少数表面电极的传统神经反馈方法。

目的：

这项研究的目的是评估一种创新的断层扫描神经反馈方案，该方案将整个头皮上测得的神经活动与sLORETA来源估计结合起来。

方法：

48名耳鸣患者参加了15次神经反馈训练课程，以及广泛的术前，术后和随访测试。将患者随机分配到断层扫描（TONF）或传统的基于电极的神经反馈（NTNF）组。这项研究的主要结局指标被定义为通过耳鸣残障量表（THI）和耳鸣问卷（TQ）测量的耳鸣相关困扰，耳鸣响度和训练频段内的静息状态EEG活动。

结果：

对于两组，都发现与耳鸣有关的困扰和耳鸣响度明显降低。尽管无论组别如何，遇险变化都持续存在，但在随访期间响度水平恢复到基线。在两种神经反馈应用（TONF与NTNF）之间未发现组间显着差异，这表明对症状改善的相似贡献。在训练过程中，训练后的alpha /δ比值显着增加，并在后续期间保持稳定。无论表面和来源水平如何，都发现了这种效果，两组之间没有有意义的差异。

结论：

我们的研究表明，层析α/δ方案应被认为是耳鸣治疗的有前途的补充，但应开发更个别的特定神经反馈方案。