EEG microstates and dynamic functional connectivity reveal stage-specific brain networks in subjective tinnitus

Description

Gong and co-authors map how brain networks differ between new and long-standing tinnitus in people whose hearing tests normal. Their 2026 study records resting brain waves from 45 participants: fifteen with acute tinnitus under six months, fifteen with chronic tinnitus, and fifteen healthy controls. Two analysis styles were combined: one tracking brief recurring brain states, one tracking fluctuating network connections.

Acute tinnitus tilted the brain toward its salience network, the system that flags important stimuli, while the central executive network participated less, and state transitions skewed toward salience processing. Its executive network also ran with unusual high-frequency efficiency. Chronic tinnitus looked different: transitions had normalised, overall network behaviour was more stable, and efficiency gains appeared instead at low frequencies in executive and auditory networks. The authors frame acute tinnitus as a salience-executive imbalance and chronic tinnitus as compensatory rebalancing, suggesting stage-specific biomarkers.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13452246