Gang Chen1, Brian Harris Kopell2,
Wolfgang Gaggl3, Rey Ramirez4, Klaus Driesslein4,
Sylvain Baillet1,4, Christopher R. Butson2,4, Shi-Jiang
Li1,5
1Department of Biophysics,
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States; 2Department
of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States; 3Department
of Radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States; 4Department
of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States; 5Department
of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, WI, United States
Epidural cortical stimulation (EpCS) has been demonstrated to be a potential therapeutic intervention for the suppression of severe tinnitus. However, individual response rates to EpCS vary substantially. It is suggested that tinnitus, in addition to the acoustic component, may have attentional and emotional components, and the insula and cingulate are involved in attention and emotion processing. In this study, we show that the EpCS effectiveness variation can be explained by the intersubject difference in functional connectivity between the insula, the cingulate and EpCS site. The stronger the connectivity, the more tinnitus can be alleviated by EpCS.