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Altered functional connectivity of the thalamus in tinnitus patients is correlated with symptom alleviation after sound therapy

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Abstract

Altered functional connectivity (FC) of the thalamus has been proven to be an important finding in tinnitus patients. Tinnitus can be effectively desensitized by sound therapy. However, it is still unclear whether and how sound therapy affects the FC of the thalamus. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and anatomical data were longitudinally collected from 25 idiopathic tinnitus patients before and after 12 weeks of sound therapy by using adjusted narrow band noise and from 25 matched healthy controls at the same time interval without any intervention. The FC of bilateral thalami were analyzed by setting the left and right thalamus as the regions of interest. Significant main effect of group on the FC of the thalamus were found mainly in the key components of the default mode network, limbic network, salience network, cognitive control network, auditory network and occipital region. FC values between the thalamus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) featured higher values in the tinnitus group at baseline compared to the healthy controls and restoration in tinnitus patients after treatment. Decreased Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) scores and decreased FC values between the right thalamus and right IFG were positively correlated (r = 0.476, P = 0.016). Abnormal FC of the thalamus is associated with multiple brain networks. Sound therapy has a normalizing effect on the enhanced FC of the thalamus-IFG and thalamus-ACC, representing decreased tinnitus attention control and less involvement of the noise-canceling system.

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Acknowledgments

We specially thank Prof. Hong You, from Liver Research Center, Beijing Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine in Liver Cirrhosis, National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Disease, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, for her support to our research. We thank Dr. Shen Liu, from the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, for their assistance with the data collection and audiological tests.

Funding

This work was supported by Grant No.81701644, No.61801311 and No. 81871322 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. [2015] 160 from Beijing Scholars Program, Grant No. 7172064 and No. 7182044 from Beijing Natural Science Foundation, No. PX2018001 from Beijing Hospitals Authority, QML20180103 from Beijing Hospitals Authority Youth Programme, No. YYZZ2017B01 from Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University.

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  1. Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No.95, Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100050, China

    Han Lv, Pengfei Zhao, Xu Cheng, Zhenghan Yang & Zhenchang Wang

  2. Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China

    Chunli Liu, Zhaodi Wang & Shusheng Gong

  3. Department of Otolaryngology, The Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical College, Hebei, 067000, China

    Chunli Liu

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  1. Han Lv
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This research involved human participants. All authors have declared that this research was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects enrolled in this study.

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Lv, H., Liu, C., Wang, Z. et al. Altered functional connectivity of the thalamus in tinnitus patients is correlated with symptom alleviation after sound therapy. Brain Imaging and Behavior 14, 2668–2678 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00218-0

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