Altered top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop

Abstract

Purpose: Tinnitus is the perception of a sound in the absence of external stimulus. Currently, the pathophysiology of tinnitus is not fully understood, but recent studies indicate that alterations in the brain involve non-auditory areas, including the prefrontal cortex. Here, we hypothesize that these brain alterations affect top-down cognitive control mechanisms that play a role in the regulation of sensations, emotions and attention resources.

Methods: The efficiency of the executive control as well as simple reaction speed and processing speed were evaluated in tinnitus participants (TP) and matched control subjects (CS) in both the auditory and the visual modalities using a spatial Stroop paradigm.

Results: TP were slower and less accurate than CS during both the auditory and the visual spatial Stroop tasks, while simple reaction speed and stimulus processing speed were affected in TP in the auditory modality only.

Conclusions: Tinnitus is associated both with modality-specific deficits along the auditory processing system and an impairment of cognitive control mechanisms that are involved both in vision and audition (i.e. that are supra-modal). We postulate that this deficit in the top-down cognitive control is a key-factor in the development and maintenance of tinnitus and may also explain some of the cognitive difficulties reported by tinnitus sufferers.

Keywords: Tinnitus; attention; cognitive control; executive function; hearing impairment; multisensory integration; prefrontal cortex; sensory processing; spatial Stroop.