Objective To evaluate the impact of an MBSR program in patients with chronic bothersome tinnitus on the 1) severity of symptoms of tinnitus and 2) functional connectivity in neural attention networks. Study Design Open-label interventional pilot study. Setting Outpatient academic medical center. Subjects A total of 13 adult participants with a median age of 55 years, suffering from bothersome tinnitus. Methods An 8-week MBSR program was conducted by a trained MBSR instructor. The primary outcome measure was the difference in patient-reported tinnitus symptoms using the Tinnitus Handicap Index (THI) and Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) between pre-intervention, post-MBSR, and 4-week post-MBSR assessments. Secondary outcomes included change in measurements of depression, anxiety, mindfulness and cognitive abilities. Functional connectivity MRI was performed at pre- and post- MBSR intervention time points to serve as a neuroimaging biomarker of critical cortical networks. Results Scores on the THI and TFI showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement over the course of the study with a median ΔTHI of −16 and median ΔTFI of −14.8 between baseline and 4-week follow-up scores. Except for depression, there was no significant change in any of the secondary outcome measures. Analysis of the rs-fcMRI data showed increased connectivity in the post-MBSR group in attention networks but not the default network. Conclusion Participation in an MBSR program is associated with decreased severity in tinnitus symptoms and depression, and connectivity changes in neural attention networks. MBSR is a promising treatment option for chronic bothersome tinnitus that is both noninvasive and inexpensive.

Objectives: A common complaint of cancer patients is the experience of cognitive difficulty during and after chemotherapy. We hypothesized that cognitive impairment may result from dysfunction in large-scale brain networks, particularly those involved in attentional control. Methods: Using a case-control design, this study includes women with a history of invasive ductal or lobular triple-negative breast cancer who completed standard adjuvant chemotherapy within 2 years of study entry. Women who reported cognitive impairment by the Global Rating of Cognition question were considered to be cases (n = 15). Women who reported no cognitive impairment were considered to be controls (n = 13). All enrolled participants were eligible for MRI investigation and underwent resting-state functional connectivity MRI. Results: Women who self-reported cognitive impairment were found to have disrupted resting-state functional connectivity, as measured by MRI, when compared to women who did not self-report cognitive impairment. These findings suggest that some women may be more sensitive to the standard treatments for breast cancer and that this increased sensitivity may result in functional connectivity alterations in the brain networks supporting attention and executive function. Conclusions: Neuroimaging analyses confirmed self-reported cognitive deficits in women with breast cancer treated with chemotherapy.

We describe and present initial results of a weak lensing survey of nearby (z 0.1) galaxy clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In this first study, galaxy clusters are selected from the SDSS spectroscopic galaxy cluster catalogs of Miller et al. (2005) and Berlind et al. (2006). We report a total of seven individual low redshift cluster weak lensing measurements which include: A2048, A1767, A2244, A1066, A2199, and two clusters specifically identified with the C4 algorithm. Our program of weak lensing of nearby galaxy clusters in the SDSS will eventually reach ∼ 200 clusters, making it the largest weak lensing survey of individual galaxy clusters to date.

clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01458821.