Background: Brain imaging studies suggested that the functional connectivity of various limbic, prefrontal, and\r\ntemporal brain structures may play an important role in tinnitus.\r\nMethods: We evaluated in affective processing of tinnitus patients by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging\r\n(fMRI). Patients with tinnitus and healthy controls underwent fMRI (1.5 T scanner) during 4 blocks of auditory stimuli\r\nof different emotional quality: 1) unpleasant beep tones, 2) pleasant sounds of chimes, 3) neutral words, 4) words with\r\naffective valence, alternating with off-periods.\r\nResults: The comparison of activation patterns (Statistical Parametric Mapping SPM 99) revealed significant\r\ndifferences in the limbic system, in prefrontal regions, temporal association cortices and striatal regions independent\r\nof affective relevance of stimuli.\r\nConclusion: Our results underline a differing affective perception of acoustic stimuli in tinnitus patients.
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