Effect of distress on transient network dynamics and topological equilibrium in phantom sound perception

Distress is a domain-general behavioral symptom whose neural correlates have been under investigation for a long time now. Although some studies suggest that distress is encoded by changes in alpha activity and functional connectivity between specific brain regions, no study that we know has delved into the whole brain temporal dynamics of the distress component. In the current study, we compare the changes in the mean and variance of functional connectivity and small-worldness parameter over 3 min of resting state EEG to analyze the fluctuation in transient stable states, and network structure. On comparing these measures between healthy controls and patients experiencing low and high levels of distress due to a continuous ringing in the ear (tinnitus), we observe an increase in fluctuation between transient stable states characterized by an increase in both variance of functional connectivity and the small-worldness parameter. This results in a possible increase in degrees of freedom leading to a paradoxical equilibrium of the network structure in highly distressed patients. This may also be interpreted as a maladaptive compensation to look for information in order to reduce the hyper-salience in highly distressed individuals. In addition, this is correlated with the amount of distress only in the high distress tinnitus group, suggesting a catastrophic breakdown of the brain's resilience. Distress not only accompanies tinnitus, but other disorders such as somatic disorders, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. Since the current study focuses on a disorder-general distress symptom, the methods and results of the current study have a wide application in different neuropathologies.