ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience
This article is part of the Research TopicImpact of Acoustic Environments and Noise on Auditory PerceptionView all 15 articles
Alterations of brain network topology and structural-functional connectivity coupling in noise-induced hearing loss based on macroscopic scale
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yantaishan Hospital, Yantai, China
- 2Yantaishan Hospital - East Campus, Yantai, China
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Objective: To investigate the changes in the global attributes of structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) graph theory, as well as the coupling topological structure of the whole brain SC-FC in patients with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Methods: 57 NIHL patients and 55 health controls (HCs) were included; resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, clinical data (scales, laboratory indicators) were collected. The graph theory network analysis of SC and FC, the whole-brain SC-FCcoupling were performed, and a correlation analysis was employed to analyze the results in relation to the clinical data. Results: For FC, there was no significant difference in the global indices directly between groups(P>0.05, FDR corrected). For SC, the normalized clustering coefficient (γ) and small-worldness (σ) of the NIHL were higher than those of the HCs(P<0.05, FDR corrected). There was no significant difference in the SC-FC coupling strength of whole brain between two groups (P>0.05). The graph attribute indices and coupling values of NIHL were correlated to varying degrees with the results of anxiety scale, coagulation, inflammation and biochemical indices (P<0.05). Conclusions: The brain network topology structure of NIHL patients is abnormal, but the SC-FC coupling strength does not change significantly. This may provide a basis for understanding the theoretical mechanism of brain neural function remodeling and for future more detailed and diverse studies.
Keywords: Diffusion Tensor Imaging, graph theory analysis, noise-induced hearing loss, Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging, Structure-function coupling
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Bao, Huang, Wang, Wang, Lv and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guowei Zhang
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