Directed functional connectivity of the hippocampus in patients with presbycusis

Presbycusis, associated with a diminished quality of life characterized by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at high frequencies, has become an increasingly critical public health problem. This study aimed to identify directed functional connectivity (FC) of the hippocampus in patients with presbycusis and to explore the causes if the directed functional connections of the hippocampus were disrupted. Presbycusis patients (n = 32) and age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls (n = 40) were included in this study. The seed regions of bilateral hippocampus were selected to identify directed FC in patients with presbycusis using Granger causality analysis (GCA) approach. Correlation analyses were conducted to detect the associations of disrupted directed FC of hippocampus with clinical measures of presbycusis. Compared to healthy controls, decreased directed FC between inferior parietal lobule, insula, right supplementary motor area, middle temporal gyrus and hippocampus were detected in presbycusis patients. Furthermore, a negative correlation between TMB score and the decline of directed FC from left inferior parietal lobule to left hippocampus (r = -0.423, p = 0.025) and from right inferior parietal lobule to right hippocampus (r = -0.516, p = 0.005) were also observed. The decreased directed functional connections of the hippocampus were detected in patients with presbycusis, which was associated with specific cognitive performance. This study mainly emphasizes the crucial role of hippocampus in presbycusis and will enhance our understanding of the neuropathological mechanisms of presbycusis.