Automated Tinnitus Detection Through Dual-Modality Neuroimaging: EEG Microstate Analysis and Resting-State fMRI Classification Using Deep Learning

Abstract

Objective: Tinnitus affects 10-15% of the population yet lacks objective diagnostic biomarkers. This study applied machine learning to EEG and fMRI data to identify neural signatures distinguishing tinnitus patients from healthy controls. Methods: Two datasets were analyzed: 64-channel EEG recordings from 80 participants (40 tinnitus, 40 controls) and resting-state fMRI data from 38 participants (19 tinnitus, 19 controls). EEG analysis extracted microstate features across four to seven clustering states and five frequency bands, producing 440 features per subject. Global Field Power signals were also transformed into wavelet images for deep learning. fMRI data were analyzed using slice-wise convolutional neural networks and hybrid models combining pre-trained architectures (VGG16, ResNet50) with Decision Tree, Random Forest, and SVM classifiers. Model performance was evaluated using 5-fold cross-validation based on accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC. Results: EEG microstate analysis revealed altered network dynamics in tinnitus, particularly reduced gamma-band microstate B occurrence (healthy: 56.56 vs tinnitus: 43.81, p < 0.001) and diminished alpha coverage. Tree-based classifiers achieved up to 98.8% accuracy, while VGG16 on wavelet-transformed EEG yielded 95.4% and 94.1% accuracy for delta and alpha bands, respectively. fMRI analysis identified 12 high-performing axial slices (>=90% accuracy), with slice 17 reaching 99.0%. The hybrid VGG16-Decision Tree model achieved 98.95% +/- 2.94% accuracy. Conclusion: EEG and fMRI provided effective neural biomarkers for tinnitus classification. Tree-based and hybrid models demonstrated superior performance, highlighting tinnitus as a multi-network disorder requiring multimodal analysis.