Rafay Ali Khan
Neuroscience PhD student
Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2514 Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: rafay2@illinois.edu
Bio
I am interest in the interaction between perception and cognition - how does our perception of the world impact the way we process thoughts, and vice versa? Further, how does dysfunction of either of these factors impact the other?
In my current research, I focus on the various dysfunctions seen to occur with tinnitus and its many comorbid conditions, such as hearing loss, hyperacusis, depression and anxiety. I am currently using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), positron emission tomography (PET), resting-state and task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in my research, and am also expanding the scope of my research to better understanding a very understudied disorder - misophonia.
Latest Publication
Subjective, chronic tinnitus, the perception of sound in the absence of an external source, commonly occurs with many comorbidities, making it a difficult condition to study. Hearing loss, often believed to be the driver for tinnitus, is perhaps one of the most significant comorbidities. In the present
study, white matter correlates of tinnitus and hearing loss were examined.
Diffusion imaging data were collected from 96 participants—43 with tinnitus and hearing loss (TINHL), 17 with tinnitus and normal hearing thresholds (TINNH), 17 controls with hearing loss (CONHL) and 19 controls with normal hearing (CONNH). Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity and probabilistic tractography analyses were conducted on the diffusion imaging data.
Analyses revealed differences in FA and structural connectivity specific to tinnitus, hearing loss, and both conditions when comorbid, suggesting the existence of tinnitus-specific neural networks.
These findings also suggest that age plays an important role in neural plasticity, and thus may account for some of the variability of results in the literature. However, this effect is not seen in tractography results, where a sensitivity analysis revealed that age did not impact measures of network integration or segregation. Based on these results and previously reported findings, we propose an updated model of tinnitus, wherein the internal capsule and corpus callosum play important roles in the evaluation of, and neural plasticity in response to tinnitus.
From My Blog
I'll be blogging about various neuroimaging analyses techniques that I use in my research. You can find it here.