Mobile Crowd Sensing Services for Tinnitus Assessment, Therapy and Research

Tinnitus, the phantom sensation of sound, is a highly prevalent disorder that is difficult to treat; i.e., available treatments are only effective for patient subgroups. Sufficiently large and qualitative longitudinal data sets, which aggregate the individuals’ demographic and clinical characteristics, together with their response to specific therapeutic interventions, would therefore facilitate evidence-based treatment suggestions for individual patients. Currently, clinical trials are the standard instrument for realizing evidence-based medicine. However, the related information gathering is limited. For example, clinical trials try to reduce the complexity of the individual case by generating homogeneous groups to obtain significant results. From the latter, individual treatment decisions are inferred. A complementary approach would be to assess the effect of specific interventions in large samples considering the individual peculiarity of each subject. This allows providing individualized treatment decisions. Recently, mobile crowd sensing emerged as an approach for collecting large and ecological valid datasets at rather low costs. By providing mobile crowd sensing services to large numbers of patients, large datasets can be gathered cheaply on a daily basis. In the TrackYourTinnitus project, we implemented a mobile crowd sensing platform to reveal new medical aspects on tinnitus and its treatment. Additionally, we work on mobile services exploring approaches for understanding tinnitus and for improving its diagnostic and therapeutic management. We present the TrackYourTinnitus platform as well as its goals, architecture and preliminary results. Overall, the platform and its mobile services offer promising perspectives for tinnitus research and treatment

A cost-based multi-layer network approach for the discovery of patient phenotypes

Clinical records frequently include assessments of the characteristics of patients, which may include the completion of various questionnaires. These questionnaires provide a variety of perspectives on a patient's current state of well-being. Not only is it critical to capture the heterogeneity given by these perspectives, but there is also a growing demand for developing cost-effective technologies for clinical phenotyping. Filling out many questionnaires may be a strain for the patients and therefore costly. In this work, we propose COBALT -- a cost-based layer selector model for detecting phenotypes using a community detection approach. Our goal is to minimize the number of features used to build these phenotypes while preserving its quality. We test our model using questionnaire data from chronic tinnitus patients and represent the data in a multi-layer network structure. The model is then evaluated by predicting post-treatment data using baseline features (age, gender, and pre-treatment data) as well as the identified phenotypes as a feature. For some post-treatment variables, predictors using phenotypes from COBALT as features outperformed those using phenotypes detected by traditional clustering methods. Moreover, using phenotype data to predict post-treatment data proved beneficial in comparison with predictors that were solely trained with baseline features.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JDS

Mobile Crowdsensing Services for Tinnitus Assessment and Patient Feedback

Assessment of chronic disorders requires new ways of data collection compared to the traditional pen & paper based approaches. For example, tinnitus, the phantom sensation of sound, is a highly prevalent disorder that is difficult to treat; i.e., available treatments are only effective for patient subgroups. In most individuals with tinnitus, loudness and annoyance of tinnitus varies over time. Currently, established assessment methods of tinnitus neither systematically assess this moment-to-moment variability nor environmental factors having an effect on tinnitus loudness and distress. However, information of individual fluctuations and the effect of envi-ronmental factors on the tinnitus might represent important information for tinnitus subtyping and for individualized treat-ment. In this context, a promising approach for collecting ecological valid longitudinal datasets at rather low costs is mobile crowdsensing. In the TrackYourTinnitus project, we developed an advanced mobile crowdsensing platform to reveal more detailed information about the course of tinnitus over time. In this paper, the patient mobile feedback service as a particular component of the platform is presented. It was developed to provide patients with aggregated information about the variation of their tinnitus over time. This mobile feedback service shall help a patient to demystify the tinnitus and to get better control of it, which should facilitate coping with this chronic health condition. As the basic principles and design of this mobile services are also applicable to other chronic disorders, promising perspectives for disorder management and clinical research arise

Using Auditory Steady State Responses to Outline the Functional Connectivity in the Tinnitus Brain

BACKGROUND: Tinnitus is an auditory phantom perception that is most likely generated in the central nervous system. Most of the tinnitus research has concentrated on the auditory system. However, it was suggested recently that also non-auditory structures are involved in a global network that encodes subjective tinnitus. We tested this assumption using auditory steady state responses to entrain the tinnitus network and investigated long-range functional connectivity across various non-auditory brain regions. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using whole-head magnetoencephalography we investigated cortical connectivity by means of phase synchronization in tinnitus subjects and healthy controls. We found evidence for a deviating pattern of long-range functional connectivity in tinnitus that was strongly correlated with individual ratings of the tinnitus percept. Phase couplings between the anterior cingulum and the right frontal lobe and phase couplings between the anterior cingulum and the right parietal lobe showed significant condition x group interactions and were correlated with the individual tinnitus distress ratings only in the tinnitus condition and not in the control conditions. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that demonstrates existence of a global tinnitus network of long-range cortical connections outside the central auditory system. This result extends the current knowledge of how tinnitus is generated in the brain. We propose that this global extend of the tinnitus network is crucial for the continuos perception of the tinnitus tone and a therapeutical intervention that is able to change this network should result in relief of tinnitus

Moment-to-moment variability of the auditory phantom perception in chronic tinnitus

With a prevalence of about 70%, the majority of patients that undergo cochlear implantation also report a perception of tinnitus prior to operation. Following implantation, some patients report an improvement of tinnitus while the tinnitus worsens in other cases. Subjective tinnitus, in general, is defined as an auditory perception in the absence of any physically identifiable source for it. The patients typically report a constant ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ear, which can lead to serious psychological distress including depression, insomnia and anxiety. Several evidence exists, that the perception of tinnitus is not constant during the everyday life and rather fluctuations from one moment to the other and that the amount of fluctuation relates to the generally perceived tinnitus-related distress. For example, electrical stimulation of the cochlea can change this perceptual variability leading to longer and more episodes where the tinnitus is 'off'. In order to measure this moment-to-moment variability of tinnitus perception, we developed an experience sampling application running on smartphones that is able to track the individual tinnitus perception and distress during the day under real world conditions. The longitudinal data collected by the app might also be helpful for the adjustment of the CI settings. Additionally, we assessed the moment-to-moment variability of brain activity in the auditory cortex using magnetoencephalography. Chronic tinnitus is usually associated with a decrease of the alpha frequency oscillatory power in temporal areas. Here we show, that also the moment-to-moment variability of the alpha activity is largely reduced in chronic tinnitus. Most importantly, it can be shown that this neuronal variability is associated with the tinnitus duration. Subjects with a longer history of tinnitus show less alpha variability in auditory regions. Whether these changes in neuronal variability relate to the perceptual variability remains to be seen

Top-Down Modulation of the Auditory Steady-State Response in a Task-Switch Paradigm

Auditory selective attention is an important mechanism for top-down selection of the vast amount of auditory information our perceptual system is exposed to. In the present study, the impact of attention on auditory steady-state responses is investigated. This issue is still a matter of debate and recent findings point to a complex pattern of attentional effects on the auditory steady state response (aSSR). The present study aimed at shedding light on the involvement of ipsilateral and contralateral activations to the attended sound taking into account hemispheric differences and a possible dependency on modulation frequency. In aid of this, a dichotic listening experiment was designed using amplitude-modulated tones that were presented to the left and right ear simultaneously. Participants had to detect target tones in a cued ear while their brain activity was assessed using MEG. Thereby, a modulation of the aSSR by attention could be revealed, interestingly restricted to the left hemisphere and 20 Hz responses: contralateral activations were enhanced while ipsilateral activations turned out to be reduced. Thus, our findings support and extend recent findings, showing that auditory attention can influence the aSSR, but only under specific circumstances and in a complex pattern regarding the different effects for ipsilateral and contralateral activations

Mobile Crowd Sensing in Clinical and Psychological Trials – A Case Study

Many highly prevalent diseases (e.g., tinnitus, migraine, chronic pain) are difficult to treat and universally effective treatments are missing. Available treatments are only effective in patient subgroups; i.e., medical doctors and patients have to figure out which therapy might be helpful in the patient’s situation. Sufficiently large and qualitative longitudinal data sets, however, would be desirable to facilitate evidence-based treatment decisions for individual patients. On one hand, traditional sensing techniques (i.e., clinical trials) have many merits enabling evidence-based medicine. On the other, they have inherent limitations. First, clinical trials are very cost- and labour-intensive. Second, the traditional approach aims at reducing ecological heterogeneity to enable the investigation of homogeneous subsamples. Recently, a new paradigm emerged that offers promising perspectives for collecting large amounts of longitudinal patient data – Mobile Crowd Sensing. By utilizing smart mobile devices of a large number of patients, health information can be gathered from large patient collections as well as at many different time points and in various real life environmental situations. In the TrackYourTinnitus project, we implemented such a mobile crowd sensing platform to reveal new medical aspects about tinnitus with a particular focus on the variability of tinnitus over time depending on the environmental situation. In this paper, the current project status as well as first lessons learned from running the mobile application for twelve months are presented. In turn, the lessons learned are discussed in the context of the new perspectives offered by mobile crowd sensing in the medical field

Towards a Conceptual Framework Fostering Process Comprehension in Healthcare

Despite the widespread use of process models in healthcare organizations, there are many unresolved issues regarding the reading and comprehension of these models by domain experts. This is aggravated by the fact that there exists a plethora of process modeling languages for the graphical do-cumentation of processes, which are often not used consistently for various reasons. Hence, the identification of those factors fostering the comprehension of process models becomes crucial. We have developed a conceptual framework incorporating measurements and theories from cognitive neuroscience and psychology to unravel factors fostering the comprehension of process models within organizations. We believe that a better comprehension of process models will enhance the support of healthcare processes significantly

How dynamic is the continuous tinnitus percept?

Objective: Subjective tinnitus is defined as an auditory perception in the absence of any physically identifiable source for it. About 5-10% of the population report a continuous perception of the tinnitus sound – but how continuous is this perception? Is the tinnitus constantly “on”, or are there also periods were the tinnitus is perceived less? Indeed, more than 60% of the chronic tinnitus subjects report a variability of the tinnitus perception between days. The heterogeneity of this variability is currently largely unexplored. Results: Chronic tinnitus is usually associated with a decrease of the alpha frequency oscillatory power in temporal areas. Here we show, that also the moment-to-moment variability of the alpha activity is largely reduced in chronic tinnitus. Most importantly, it can be shown that this neuronal variability is associated with the tinnitus duration. Subjects with a longer history of tinnitus show less alpha variability in auditory regions. Preliminary data on the variability of the tinnitus perception will be presented