Effects of acute pure tone induced hearing loss on response properties in three auditory cortical fields in cat

In this study, we assessed the changes in spontaneous activity and frequency tuning by simultaneous recording of multi-units and local field potentials in primary auditory cortex (AI), anterior auditory field (AAF) and secondary auditory cortex (AII) of cats before and immediately after 30 min exposure to a loud (93 123 dB SPL) pure tone. The average difference of the pure tone and the characteristic frequency (CF) was less than one octave for 70% of the recordings. We found that the mean threshold at CF increased significantly in AI and in AAF but not in AII. The mean CF for units in AI decreased significantly, whereas no significant effect was noted in AAF and AII. The mean frequency-tuning curve bandwidth decreased significantly in AII. Spontaneous activity increased significantly in AI, did not change in AAF, and decreased significantly in AII. Inter-area neural synchrony was not affected. Multi-unit response areas were usually similarly affected as local field potentials based response areas because the 'damaged area', defined as the response surface before minus the surface after the trauma, was very similar. This suggests that the damage reflects peripheral activity changes. Enhancement of frequency response areas around CF, but at least one octave below the frequency of the traumatizing tone, was found most frequently in AAF and suggests a reduction of inhibition likely as a result of the peripheral hearing loss.