Purpose This study was undertaken to evaluate whole-brain functional connectivity changes related to auditory cortex in patients with left-sided sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. Method Imaging was performed in 19 patients with left-sided SNHL and 35 individuals in the control group without SNHL. Data were collected and analyzed to map functional connectivity using the left/right primary auditory cortex as the region of interest to identify global differences between patients with SNHL and the control group. Results In comparison to the control group, the SNHL group was found to have significant functional connectivity changes in the auditory system, recognition network, visual cortex, and language network. Conclusion These findings suggest that functional brain alterations in unilateral SNHL patients may indicate reorganizations that occur in response to auditory deficits.

Tinnitus is believed to result from the maladaptive plasticity of the auditory nervous system; reports regarding its severity and prognosis are conflicting. We evaluated the characteristic and short-term prognosis of tinnitus associated with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). A total of 230 cases were enrolled. The severity and 1-month prognosis of tinnitus (according to the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI)) were assessed in terms of the patients’ sex, age, level of hearing loss, type of audiogram results, and so on. According to our statistical analysis, the degree of handicap due to tinnitus was not related to sex, age, or level of hearing loss; the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory indicated that the low-frequency-audiogram group had a low tinnitus handicap (F=7.516, P=0.000). Furthermore, we found that the prognosis of tinnitus was not related to the type of audiogram or level of hearing loss. Recovery from a severe level of hearing loss was, however, found to be associated with a poor tinnitus prognosis (F=5.203, P=0.006). In summary, our study indicates that the association between tinnitus and SSNHL is extremely high. Tinnitus can be ameliorated by the successful treatment of hearing loss. The study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1800014797).

To explore the small-world properties of brain functional networks in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) to aid diagnosis. A total of 29 OSAHS patients and 26 matched healthy volunteers were scanned with blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) separately, and the whole brain was divided into 90 districts via automated anatomical labeling. The matrix Z was then built through a Fisher Z transformation. Two-sample t tests were applied to evaluate the changes in small-world properties in OSAHS patients compared to the control group. The properties included E_global, E_local, and small-world parameters L_p, C_p, γ, λ, and σ. Both groups satisfied the small-world properties (σ > 1) within the sparsity range of 0.1-0.2. However, compared with the control group, the OSAHS group performed significantly lower in C_p, E_local, and E_global (p < 0.05) and higher in L_p (p < 0.05). The γ, σ, and λ values were not significantly different between the two groups. Both healthy and OSAHS patients exhibited small-world properties in functional networks, but a subset of these small-world properties in OSAHS patients performed differently. These changes will not only provide a new perspective for pathophysiological mechanisms of OSAHS but will also help in understanding the disease in terms of whole-brain functional networks.