Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGY
Volume 84, Issue 7, Pages 1277-1284Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2015.04.006
Keywords
Chronic tinnitus; Thalamus; Functional connectivity; fMRI; Tinnitus distress
Funding
- National Key Basic Research Program (973 Program) [2013CB733800, 2013CB733803]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [81230034, 81271739]
- Jiangsu Provincial Special Program of Medical Science [BL2013029]
- Key Project of Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation of China [BK20130577]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Jiangsu Graduate Student Innovation Grant [KYZZ_0076]
- China Scholarship Council [201406090139]
- Overseas Master Project Grant, Chinese Educational Ministry
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Purpose: The phantom sound of tinnitus is believed to arise from abnormal functional coupling between the thalamus and cerebral cortex. To explore this hypothesis, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the degree of thalamocortical functional connectivity in chronic tinnitus patients and controls. Materials and methods: Resting-state fMRI scans were obtained from 31 chronic tinnitus patients and 33 well-matched healthy controls. Thalamocortical functional connectivity was characterized using a seedbased whole-brain correlation method. The resulting thalamic functional connectivity measures were correlated with other clinical data. Results: We found decreased functional connectivity between the seed region in left thalamus and right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), right middle orbitofrontal cortex, left middle frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, and bilateral calcarine cortex. Decreased functional connectivity was detected between the seed in the right thalamus and the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), left amygdala, right superior frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, and left middle occipital gyrus. Tinnitus distress correlated negatively with thalamic functional connectivity in right MTG; tinnitus duration correlated negatively with thalamic functional connectivity in left STG. Increased functional connectivity between the bilateral thalamus and a set of regions were also observed. Conclusions: Chronic tinnitus patients have disrupted thalamocortical functional connectivity to selected brain regions which is associated with specific tinnitus characteristics. Resting-state thalamic functional connectivity disturbances may play an important role in neuropathological features of tinnitus. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
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