Combined rTMS treatment targeting the Anterior Cingulate and the Temporal Cortex for the Treatment of Chronic Tinnitus

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 18028
• Main Authors: Kreuzer, Peter M., Lehner, Astrid, Schlee, Winfried, Vielsmeier, Veronika, Schecklmann, Martin, Poeppl, Timm B., Landgrebe, Michael, Rupprecht, Rainer, Langguth, Berthold
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 15-12-2015; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/308/2779/109; 692/617/375; Combined Modality Therapy - methods; Cortex (cingulate); Double-Blind Method; Feasibility studies; Female; Gyrus Cinguli - physiology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Magnetic fields; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Pilot Projects; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Science; Temporal lobe; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Tinnitus; Tinnitus - therapy; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - methods; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep18028

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been proposed as a tinnitus treatment option. Promising results have been obtained by consecutive stimulation of lateral frontal and auditory brain regions. We investigated a combined stimulation paradigm targeting the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with double cone coil rTMS, followed by stimulation of the temporo-parietal junction area with a figure-of-eight coil. The study was conducted as a randomized, double-blind pilot trial in 40 patients suffering from chronic tinnitus. We compared mediofrontal stimulation with double-cone-coil, (2000 stimuli, 10 Hz) followed by left temporo-parietal stimulation with figure-of-eight-coil (2000 stimuli, 1 Hz) to left dorsolateral-prefrontal-cortex stimulation with figure-of-eight-coil (2000 stimuli, 10 Hz) followed by temporo-parietal stimulation with figure-of-eight-coil (2000 stimuli, 1 Hz). The stimulation was feasible with comparable dropout rates in both study arms; no severe adverse events were registered. Responder rates did not differ in both study arms. There was a significant main effect of time for the change in the TQ score, but no significant time x group interaction. This pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of combined mediofrontal/temporoparietal-rTMS-stimulation with double cone coil in tinnitus patients but failed to show better outcome compared to an actively rTMS treated control group.