Lateralization of cerebral blood flow in the auditory cortex of patients with idiopathic tinnitus and healthy controls: An arterial spin labeling study

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience Vol. 16; p. 992758
• Main Authors: Li, Xiaoshuai, Zhao, Yansheng, Hui, Ying, Wu, Yuntao, Chen, Qian, Shi, Huijing, Lv, Han, Li, Mengning, Zhao, Pengfei, Zhang, Wenfei, Zhao, Xinyu, Li, Jing, Cui, Liufu, Wang, Zhenchang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 07-12-2022; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: arterial spin labeling; auditory cortex; Blood flow; Cerebral blood flow; Cortex (auditory); Hearing; Hemispheric laterality; lateralization; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neuroscience; Patients; Quality of life; Sleep; Spin labeling; Statistical analysis; Tinnitus; Tomography; lateralization; cerebral blood flow; auditory cortex; tinnitus; arterial spin labeling
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.992758

To assess the lateralization of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the auditory cortex of idiopathic tinnitus patients and healthy controls (HCs) using 3D pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (pcASL).
Thirty-six patients with idiopathic tinnitus and 43 sex- and age-matched HCs underwent 3D-pcASL scanning using a 3.0 T MRI system. For both groups, region of interest analysis was performed on the primary auditory cortex (PAC), auditory associative cortex (AAC), and secondary auditory cortex (SAC). The clinical data of all subjects were analyzed.
In both tinnitus patients and HCs, CBF of the left PAC was significantly higher than that of the right (HCs:
= 0.02; patients:
= 0.043), but CBF of the right AAC and SAC was significantly higher than that of the left (AAC: HCs,
< 0.001; patients:
< 0.001. SAC: HCs,
< 0.001; patients:
= 0.001). Compared with HCs, tinnitus patients exhibited significantly higher CBF in the bilateral PAC (right:
= 0.008; left:
= 0.022). CBF in the left PAC was positively correlated with tinnitus severity (
= 0.399,
= 0.016).
This study confirms the asymmetry of the auditory cortex and investigates the underlying neuropathology of idiopathic tinnitus in terms of CBF.