Tinnitus in hamsters following exposure to intense sound

Hamsters were trained with a conditioned suppression/avoidance procedure to drink in the presence of a broadband noise and/or a tone and to stop drinking in the absence of sound. A variety of tones and loudspeaker locations were used during training so that the animals would respond to a sound regardless of its frequency or location. Four groups of animals then had their left ears exposed to a 10-kHz tone at 124 or 127 dB for 0.5, 1, 2 or 4 h. They were then tested for tinnitus by comparing their performance with that of unexposed animals to determine if they behaved as if they perceived a sound when no external sound was present. The groups exposed for 2 and 4 h tested positive for tinnitus whereas those exposed for 0.5 and 1 h did not. The degree of hearing loss produced by the tone exposure was assessed using behavioral and auditory brainstem response (ABR) procedures. A partial dissociation was found between the hearing loss, as estimated by the ABR, and the results of the tinnitus test in that animals exposed for 1 h had the same hearing loss as the 2- and 4-h exposed animals, but did not test positive for tinnitus. This suggests that the positive scores on the tinnitus test were not due to hearing loss. These results are discussed along with those of previous behavioral studies of tinnitus in animals.