Tinnitus is an auditory phantom perception in the absence of any corresponding acoustic stimulus whose pathophysiology remains poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate alterations in the functional organization of the brain in individuals with tinnitus using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and graph theory analysis.
Methods:
We conducted a study including 44 individuals with tinnitus and 32 healthy controls. Using rs-fMRI and graph theory measures, we characterized whole-brain topological properties, including network segregation, integration, small-worldness, and global efficiency. In addition, regional segregation and integration were assessed using clustering coefficient and participation coefficient analyses to identify alterations in brain hub regions.
Results:
Our findings revealed altered topological properties in the tinnitus brain, particularly in the balance between cerebral segregation and integration, leading to deviations from optimal small-world architecture. We also observed alterations in the topology of specific auditory and nonauditory brain regions associated with phantom sound perception. Notably, patients with tinnitus exhibited a decreased nodal participation coefficient in the thalamus, suggesting reduced connectivity between this region and different functional modules as well as long-range connections.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that tinnitus is associated with alterations in the functional organization of the brain, leading to disrupted information processing and sensory integration.
Impact Statement
This article investigates functional modifications in patients with chronic tinnitus using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory analysis. The results show that individuals with tinnitus, compared with healthy volunteers, exhibit distinct topological patterns in their resting-state brain activity. We demonstrate decreased segregation in several brain regions in patients with tinnitus, as well as decreased integration in the right thalamus. These results suggest that tinnitus may be associated with alterations in the functional organization of the brain, leading to disrupted information processing and sensory integration.
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