Abstract #3786

Subcortical and cortical fMRI assessment of auditory pathway function associated with lifetime noise exposure in normally hearing listeners

Rebecca Susan Dewey^1,2,3, Susan T Francis¹, Hannah Guest⁴, Garreth Prendergast⁴, Rebecca E Millman^4,5, Christopher J Plack^4,5,6, and Deborah A Hall^2,3,7

¹Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, ²NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom, ³Hearing Sciences, Division of Clinical Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, ⁴Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD), University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, ⁵NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom, ⁶Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom, ⁷University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

We investigated the relationship of lifetime noise exposure with subcortical and cortical auditory fMRI BOLD responses to broadband noise in 62 individuals with clinically normal audiometric thresholds. We demonstrate robust individual and group responses to a broadband noise across structures in the auditory pathway. In line with animal models, we show a significantly increased BOLD response to stimulus onset in individuals with high noise exposure compared to those with low noise exposure in all auditory structures assessed. We also show a trend towards individuals with high noise exposure exhibiting a greater sustained BOLD response.

This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.

Join Here