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Graph theoretical analysis of brain connectivity in phantom sound perception
Anusha Mohan1, Dirk De Ridder2, Sven Vanneste1
1Lab for Clinical &Integrative Neuroscience, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA.
Scientific Reports
|February 3, 2016
Summary
Tinnitus patients show altered brain connectivity. This study found increased high-frequency brainwave connections and decreased low-frequency connections, suggesting a complex network reorganization in tinnitus.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Graph Theory
- Signal Processing
Background:
- Tinnitus is a phantom auditory perception often linked to auditory deafferentation.
- The brain's functional connectivity patterns are crucial for understanding neurological conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate differences in functional connectivity in tinnitus patients compared to healthy controls using graph theory.
- To analyze alterations in brain network topology across different frequency bands in tinnitus.
Main Methods:
- Utilized resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) data from 311 tinnitus patients and 256 healthy controls.
- Applied graph theory metrics to analyze lagged phase functional connectivity.
- Examined connectivity patterns across delta, theta, alpha1, beta, and gamma frequency bands.
Main Results:
- Tinnitus group exhibited significantly increased connectivity in beta and gamma oscillations.
- A significant reduction in connectivity was observed in lower frequencies (delta, theta, alpha1) for the tinnitus group.
- Enhanced parallel processing of long-distance information across multiple frequency bands was noted in tinnitus patients.
- Network topology shifted towards more regularity in low frequencies and more randomness in high frequencies.
Conclusions:
- Tinnitus may be characterized as a maladaptive 'disconnection' syndrome.
- The brain attempts to stabilize its network topology while signaling deafferentation-related prediction errors.
- Altered functional connectivity and network topology in specific frequency bands are key features of tinnitus.
