Purpose

The present study combined resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and Granger causality analysis (GCA) to explore frontostriatal network dysfunction in unilateral acute tinnitus (AT) patients with hearing loss.

Methods

The participants included 42 AT patients and 43 healthy control (HC) subjects who underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. Based on the seed regions in the frontostriatal network, FC and GCA were conducted between the AT patients and HC subjects. Correlation analyses were used to examine correlations among altered FC values, GCA values, and clinical features in AT patients.

Results

Compared with HCs, AT patients showed a general reduction in FC between the seed regions in the frontostriatal network and nonauditory areas, including the frontal cortices, midcingulate cortex (MCC), supramarginal gyrus, and postcentral gyrus (PoCG). Using the GCA algorithm, we detected abnormal effective connectivity (EC) in the inferior occipital gyrus, MCC, Cerebelum_Crus1, and PoCG. Furthermore, correlations between disrupted FC/EC and clinical characteristics, especially tinnitus distress-related characteristics, were found in AT patients.

Conclusions

Our work demonstrated abnormal FC and EC between the frontostriatal network and several nonauditory regions in AT patients with hearing loss, suggesting that multiple large-scale network dysfunctions and interactions are involved in the perception of tinnitus. These findings not only enhance the current understanding of the frontostriatal network in tinnitus but also serve as a reminder of the importance of focusing on tinnitus at an early stage.

中文翻译：

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单侧急性耳鸣伴听力损失患者前额纹状体网络的异常功能和有效连接

目的

本研究结合静息状态功能连接（FC）和格兰杰因果分析（GCA）来探索单侧急性耳鸣（AT）听力损失患者的前纹状体网络功能障碍。

方法

参与者包括 42 名 AT 患者和 43 名健康对照 (HC) 受试者，他们接受了静息状态功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 扫描。基于额纹网络中的种子区域，在 AT 患者和 HC 受试者之间进行 FC 和 GCA。相关性分析用于检查 AT 患者改变的 FC 值、GCA 值和临床特征之间的相关性。

结果

与 HCs 相比，AT 患者的额纹网络种子区域和非听觉区域之间的 FC 普遍减少，包括额叶皮质、中扣带回 (MCC)、边缘上回和中央后回 (PoCG)。使用 GCA 算法，我们检测到枕下回、MCC、Cerebelum_Crus1 和 PoCG 的异常有效连接 (EC)。此外，在 AT 患者中发现了被破坏的 FC/EC 与临床特征之间的相关性，尤其是耳鸣窘迫相关特征。

结论

我们的工作表明，听力损失的 AT 患者的额纹状网络和几个非听觉区域之间的 FC 和 EC 异常，表明多种大规模网络功能障碍和相互作用与耳鸣的感知有关。这些发现不仅增强了目前对耳鸣额纹状体网络的理解，而且提醒人们在早期阶段关注耳鸣的重要性。