Functional reorganization of resting state in patients with vestibular schwannoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the underlying mechanisms of cortical reorganization in vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients compared with normal controls by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis.Methods Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging,we investigated the underlying mechanisms of cortical reorganization with 42 unilateral hearing loss participants (21 of each side) resulted from VS compared with 24 matched normal controls.ReHo results were further analyzed by single-factor analysis of variance comparing (ANOVA) among three groups in the whole brain levels.Results The three groups had shown a significant difference in several brain regions served to auditory processing,default model network and multi-sensory information integration (P ＜ 0.05),including bilateral insular cortex,the left superior temporal gyrus cortex,bilateral precentral gyrus and occipital areas.Regionally,we found that ReHo value,of the left superior temporal sulcus (STS) was decreased,and of bilateral insula cortex (IC) was increased,emphasizing cortical reorganization of VS patients.Conclusions VS patients had functional plasticity in auditory cortex and brain areas involving in perceptual processing,and the process of hearing damage caused the function remodeling in cerebral cortex.Further,our findings had important implications for a variety of other sensory impairments,and it gave rise to new considerations regarding functional networks that involve the IC.Finally,our findings supported the theory that changes in sensory experience could drive plasticity within and beyond the auditory networks in unilateral hearing processing of VS patients. Key words: Schwannoma,vestibular; Hearing impairment; Cortical plasticity; Resting state functional magnetic resonance