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

Abstract

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.

Distinct brain structural‐functional network topological coupling explains different outcomes in tinnitus patients treated with sound therapy

“…We speculate that this result may indicate that patients in the EG have a normal structural connection range and a longer functional connection range. For the remaining functional topological properties, consistent with some prior studies (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021a ; Lin et al, 2020 ), we speculate that structural injury emerges immediately after or in the early stage after tinnitus through the whole brain, while the functional network remains relatively intact in the same phase (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021a ; Straathof et al, 2019 ). The exact mechanism of this inconsistency needs to be further studied in the future.…”

“…Patients in the EG showed significant tinnitus symptom relief relative to patients in the IG (52.30% vs. −15.79%). More interestingly, using multimodal neuroimaging methods (a combination of SC, FC, and SC‐FC coupling), we found that except for brain structural changes (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021b ) and functional network‐level reorganization (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021a ), there were significant differences in brain SC network properties and SC‐FC couplings between the two groups; these differences were closely related to patient's outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study exploring the distinct mechanisms of tinnitus patients with different outcomes after sound therapy from the perspective of functional‐structural connectome coalescence, employing combined DTI and rs‐fMRI methods.…”

“…Patients in the EG showed significant tinnitus symptom relief relative to patients in the IG (52.30% vs. À15.79%). More interestingly, using multimodal neuroimaging methods (a combination of SC, FC, and SC-FC coupling), we found that except for brain structural changes (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021b) and functional network-level reorganization (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021a), there were significant differences in brain SC network properties and SC-FC couplings between the two groups; these differences were closely related to patient's outcomes.…”

“…To date, some studies have investigated relationships between changes in brain structure and function and clinical manifestations in patients with idiopathic tinnitus with different prognoses after sound therapy (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021a , 2021b ; Han, Na, et al, 2019 ). For instance, previous studies revealed that the differences in brain structural changes (gray matter volume and white matter integrity) of tinnitus patients are closely related to the improvement of clinical performance (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021b ), as are the functional changes (Han, Na, et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Our recent study focused on tinnitus patients with different outcomes after sound therapy and found that there were significant differences in brain structural reorganization among these patients (Chen, Lv, et al, 2021b). Moreover, one recent study (Chen et al, 2021a) even showed that the network connectivity among these patients was significantly different. These differences are closely related to patients' clinical performance.…”