Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-10-2023

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

First Advisor

Toshikazu Ikuta

Second Advisor

Myriam Kornisch

Third Advisor

Jeffery Bednark

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Previous literature shows that there is a known correlation between the presence of migraines and hearing loss. The purpose of the current study was to better understand how a history of migraines can affect the integrity of the auditory radiations and the increased risk of hearing loss in individuals with migraine history. We used Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) in order to examine the effect of a history of migraines on the auditory radiation systems in the brain. The DTI neuroimaging data was collected from the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample, and participants’ demographics closely paralleled the United States demographic distributions. Our study results showed increased integrity of the auditory radiations for individuals with a history of migraines compared to those without a history of migraines, which ultimately resulted in higher fractional anisotropy of the auditory radiation. Further research could be conducted to test if the integrity of the auditory radiation could possibly be used to predict sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) in subjects with migraine history.

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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