Accelerated neural aging as a systems-level vulnerability for tinnitus

Abstract

Tinnitus, the perception of sound without an external source, affects 10-15% of individuals, yet its neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. Building on evidence that chronological age predicts tinnitus risk beyond hearing loss, we tested the hypothesis that accelerated neural aging increases susceptibility to tinnitus by integrating cross-sectional resting-state MEG with longitudinal structural imaging data. In a large MEG dataset, spectral parametrization revealed that age-neural relationships were amplified in the tinnitus group compared to age-, sex- & hearing-matched controls. Complementing these findings, prospective analyses using data from the UK Biobank showed that among participants without tinnitus at baseline, stronger age-related declines in white-matter density predicted later tinnitus onset. Collectively, these converging functional and structural findings support accelerated brain aging as a key risk factor for tinnitus.