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Affective Processing in Tinnitus Patients Assessed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Petra Georgiewa,Georg Bohner,Yvonne Rothemund,Randolf Klingebiel,Heidi Olze,Burghard F. Klapp,Birgit Mazurek*

Background: Brain imaging studies suggested that the functional connectivity of various limbic, prefrontal, and temporal brain structures may play an important role in tinnitus.

Methods: We evaluated in affective processing of tinnitus patients by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Patients with tinnitus and healthy controls underwent fMRI (1.5 T scanner) during 4 blocks of auditory stimuli of different emotional quality: 1) unpleasant beep tones, 2) pleasant sounds of chimes, 3) neutral words, 4) words with affective valence, alternating with off-periods.

Results: The comparison of activation patterns (Statistical Parametric Mapping SPM 99) revealed significant differences in the limbic system, in prefrontal regions, temporal association cortices and striatal regions independent of affective relevance of stimuli.

Conclusion: Our results underline a differing affective perception of acoustic stimuli in tinnitus patients.