Human Auditory and Adjacent Nonauditory Cerebral Cortices Are Hypermetabolic in Tinnitus as Measured by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Human Auditory and Adjacent Nonauditory Cerebral Cortices Are Hypermetabolic in Tinnitus as Measured by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Neural Plast. 2016;2016:7453149
Authors: Issa M, Bisconti S, Kovelman I, Kileny P, Basura GJ
Abstract
Tinnitus is the phantom perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic stimulus. To date, the purported neural correlates of tinnitus from animal models have not been adequately characterized with translational technology in the human brain. The aim of the present study was to measure changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration from regions of interest (ROI; auditory cortex) and non-ROI (adjacent nonauditory cortices) during auditory stimulation and silence in participants with subjective tinnitus appreciated equally in both ears and in nontinnitus controls using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Control and tinnitus participants with normal/near-normal hearing were tested during a passive auditory task. Hemodynamic activity was monitored over ROI and non-ROI under episodic periods of auditory stimulation with 750 or 8000 Hz tones, broadband noise, and silence. During periods of silence, tinnitus participants maintained increased hemodynamic responses in ROI, while a significant deactivation was seen in controls. Interestingly, non-ROI activity was also increased in the tinnitus group as compared to controls during silence. The present results demonstrate that both audito...

Source: Neural Plasticity - April 5, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Issa M, Bisconti S, Kovelman I, Kileny P, Basura GJ Tags: Neural Plast Source Type: research