Resting-state FMRI Study Of Abnormal Directional Functional Connectivity In The Hippocampus Of Presbycusis

Purpose: Presbycusis,which is characterized by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at high frequencies,has become an increasingly serious public health problem due to the decline of the quality of life caused by it.The purpose of this study is to explore the changes of the directional functional connections in the hippocampus of the presbycusis patients and the causes of the changes.Materials and Methods: 32 presbycusis patients were recruited,and 40 healthy controls with no significant statistical difference in age,gender and education level were recruited as the control group.By using the Granger causality analysis(GCA),the bilateral hippocampus were selected as seed regions to identify directional functional connectivity in patients with presbycusis.It was conducted with correlation analyses to detect the associations of disrupted directed FC of hippocampus with clinical measures of presbycusis.Results: Compared with the healthy control group,the directed FC between inferior parietal lobule,insula,right supplementary motor area,middle temporal gyrus and hippocampus decreased in the presbycusis patients.TMT-B scores showed a negative correlation with the decrease of the directed FC from the left inferior parietal lobe to the left hippocampus(?),and from the right inferior parietal lobe to the right hippocampus(?).Conclusions: The decreased directed FC of hippocampus in the presbycusis patients was found in this study,which was related to the change of specific cognitive function.At the same time,the importance of hippocampus in the pathogenesis of presbycusis is emphasized,which is helpful to enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of presbycusis.