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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Ribbon Synapses at Specific Frequency Regions of the Mouse Cochlea
Published on: May 10, 2019
Specific plasticity responses to unilaterally decreased or increased hearing intensity in the adult cochlear nucleus
Robert-Benjamin Illing1, Adrian Reisch
1Neurobiological Research Laboratory, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Freiburg, Killianstr. 5, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany. robert.illing@uniklinik-freiburg.de
Abstract:
Variations of sensory activation in strength and pattern are known to affect structure and function of the mammalian brain. Whereas such malleability is readily granted to forebrain structures at early developmental stages, acceptance of experience-dependent structural plasticity has been slow for the adult brainstem. Over the past years we have identified consequences of cochlear ablation, noise trauma, or electrical intracochlear stimulation on neurons and circuitry of the auditory brainstem of the adult rat. We found that loss of sensory activation as well as a substitution for it entail specific molecular, ultrastructural, and morphological changes to central auditory neurons. Here, we make a first attempt to compare these different patterns of central remodeling. We tentatively suggest that after hearing loss or intracochlear stimulation responses of the central neural network in the adult brainstem suit the concept of functional adaptation.
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