Pretreatment intranetwork connectivity can predict the outcomes in idiopathic tinnitus patients treated with sound therapy

• Main Authors: Chen, Q. (Author), Gong, S. (Author), Liu, J. (Author), Lv, H. (Author), Wang, Z. (Author), Wei, X. (Author), Yang, Z. (Author), Zhao, P. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2021
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; adult; Adult; Article; auditory network; Auditory Perception; auditory stimulation; brain cortex; Cerebral Cortex; clinical improvement; connectome; Connectome; controlled study; default mode network; Default Mode Network; diagnostic imaging; dorsal attention network; executive network; female; Female; functional connectivity; functional magnetic resonance imaging; hearing; human; Humans; idiopathic tinnitus; independent component analysis; internetwork connectivity; intranetwork connectivity; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; major clinical study; male; Male; middle aged; Middle Aged; nerve cell network; Nerve Net; Neurological Rehabilitation; neurorehabilitation; nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; outcome assessment; pathophysiology; physiology; premedication; procedures; prognosis; salience network; sensitivity and specificity; sound therapy; tinnitus; Tinnitus
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Previous studies demonstrated that brain morphological differences and distinct patterns of neural activation exist in tinnitus patients with different prognoses after sound therapy. This study aimed to explore possible differences in intrinsic network-level functional connectivity (FC) in patients with different outcomes after sound therapy (narrow band noise). We examined intrinsic FC using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in 78 idiopathic tinnitus patients (including 35 effectively treated and 43 ineffectively treated) and 52 healthy controls (HCs) via independent component analysis. We also investigated the associations between the differences in FC and clinical variables. Analyses revealed significantly altered intranetwork connectivity in the auditory network (AUN) and some nonauditory-related networks in the EG/IG patients compared to HCs; compared with EG patients, IG patients showed decreased intranetwork connectivity in the anterior default mode network (aDMN) and AUN. Meanwhile, robust differences were also evident in internetwork connectivity between some nonauditory-related networks (salience network and executive control network; posterior default mode network and dorsal attention network) in the EG relative to IG patients. We combined intranetwork connectivity in the aDMN and AUN as an imaging indicator to evaluate patient outcomes and screen patients before treatment; this approach reached a sensitivity of 94.3% and a specificity of 76.7%. Our study suggests that tinnitus patients with different outcomes show distinct network-level functional reorganization patterns. Intranetwork connectivity in the aDMN and AUN may be indicators that can be used to predict prognoses in patients with idiopathic tinnitus and screen patients before sound therapy. © 2021 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.