Left hemisphere fractional anisotropy increase in noise-induced tinnitus: A diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study of white matter tracts in the brain.

Left hemisphere fractional anisotropy increase in noise-induced tinnitus: A diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study of white matter tracts in the brain. Hear Res. 2013 Nov 8; Authors: Benson RR, Gattu R, Cacace AT Abstract Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a contemporary neuroimaging modality used to study connectivity patterns and microstructure of white matter tracts in the brain. The use of DTI in the study of tinnitus is a relatively unexplored methodology with no studies focusing specifically on tinnitus induced by noise exposure. In this investigation, participants were two groups of adults matched for etiology, age, and degree of peripheral hearing loss, but differed by the presence or absence (+/-) of tinnitus. It is assumed that matching individuals on the basis of peripheral hearing loss, allows for differentiating changes in white matter microstructure due to hearing loss from changes due to the effects of chronic tinnitus. Alterations in white matter tracts, using the fractional anisotropy (FA) metric, which measures directional diffusion of water, were quantified using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) with additional details provided by in vivo probabilistic tractography. Our results indicate that 10 voxel clusters differentiated the two groups, including 9 with higher FA in the group with tinnitus. A decrease in FA was found for a single cluster in the group with tinnitus. However, seven of the 9 clusters with higher FA were i...
Source: Hearing Research - Category: Audiology Authors: Tags: Hear Res Source Type: research