Deficient top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop tasks.
(2014) 9th FENS forum of Neuroscience — Location: Milan (5.September.2014)
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- Abstract
- Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of external stimulus. Currently, the pathophysiology of tinnitus is not understood, but recent studies indicate that alterations in the brain involve non-auditory areas, including the prefrontal cortex (Leaver et al., 2011). Here, we hypothesize that these brain alterations would selectively affect top-down cognitive control mechanisms that play a role in the regulation of sensations, emotions and attention resources. Simple reaction speed, processing speed and the efficiency of the executive control were evaluated in tinnitus participants (TP, n=17) and control subjects (CS) matched for age, gender, educational level and hearing acuity. We used a spatial Stroop paradigm in both the auditory and visual modalities. Subjects were presented with the words “left” and “right” either through the left or the right earphone (in hearing) or in the left or right part of a screen (in vision). Subjects had to focus either on the meaning of the words or their location and to press as quickly as possible on a response-button. Results showed slowed down response times in all auditory conditions (i.e. reaction speed, processing speed and interference) in TP as compared to CS, while only the interference conditions appeared altered in TP in vision. This indicates that tinnitus is associated with modality-specific deficits along the auditory processing system as well as a selective impairment of the cognitive control that is involved in both modalities. We postulate that cognitive control mechanisms would play a key-role in tinnitus development and in the associated attention deficits.
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Araneda Oyaneder, R., De Volder, A., Deggouj, N., Philippot, P., Heeren, A., & et al. (2014). Deficient top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop tasks. 9th FENS forum of Neuroscience, Milan. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/231448