Static and Dynamic Changes in Local Brain Connectivity in Unilateral Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

TL;DR

This study explores how sudden hearing loss affects brain connectivity, showing both static disruptions and dynamic adaptations in brain regions linked to motor and cognitive functions.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel temporal perspective on brain reorganization in response to acute sensory loss using dynamic regional homogeneity analysis.

Findings

Static ReHo analysis shows disrupted local synchronization in motor and cognitive brain regions in SSHL patients.

Dynamic ReHo analysis reveals increased temporal variability in frontal regions, suggesting adaptive neural plasticity.

Static ReHo in the left precentral gyrus correlates with tinnitus severity, and dynamic ReHo in the middle frontal gyrus correlates with hearing loss duration.

Abstract

Unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) presents substantial clinical challenges owing to its abrupt onset and multifactorial, poorly understood etiology. This study investigates the static and dynamic changes in local brain connectivity using regional homogeneity (ReHo) analyses in 102 SSHL patients and 73 healthy controls. A static ReHo analysis reveals pronounced disruptions in local synchronization within motor and cognitive-related brain regions in SSHL patients compared to controls. A dynamic ReHo analysis uncovers increased temporal variability, particularly in frontal regions, indicating potential adaptive neural plasticity to auditory deficits through enhanced neural plasticity. The correlation analyses further associate these neural changes with clinical parameters, highlighting the significant positive correlations between static ReHo in the left precentral gyrus and tinnitus severity (R = 0.39, p < 0.001), as well as the negative correlations between dynamic ReHo in the middle frontal gyrus and the duration of hearing loss (R = −0.35, p < 0.001). These findings underscore the complex interplay between static neural dysregulation and dynamic adaptive mechanisms in the pathophysiology of SSHL. Emphasizing dynamic metrics, our study provides a novel temporal perspective on how the brain reorganizes in response to acute sensory loss.

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