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Auditory Behavior in Adult-Blinded Mice
Ye-Hyun Kim1, Katrina M Schrode1, James Engel1
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Center for Hearing and Balance, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO
|January 27, 2022
Summary
Adult visual deprivation enhances auditory neural processing but does not improve simple auditory behaviors. Mice with vision loss showed altered acoustic startle responses in noise, indicating subtle sensory changes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory processing
- Cross-modal plasticity
Background:
- Cross-modal plasticity describes enhanced sensory function after loss of another sense.
- Previous studies show auditory cortex changes after visual deprivation in mice.
- It is unclear if these neural changes improve auditory perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if adult visual deprivation impacts auditory behavior.
- To assess auditory performance after binocular enucleation in mice.
Main Methods:
- CBA/CaJ mice underwent binocular enucleation at 3-4 weeks old.
- Behavioral tests included conditioned lick suppression, acoustic startle response (ASR), and prepulse inhibition (PPI).
- Auditory brain stem responses (ABRs) were measured.
Main Results:
- Enucleated mice showed normal tone detection and frequency discrimination.
- ASR amplitude decreased in noise for enucleated mice compared to controls.
- No significant differences were found in ASR habituation, PPI, or ABRs.
Conclusions:
- Adult-onset visual deprivation induces cross-modal plasticity at neural levels.
- Simple auditory behavioral performance was not substantially influenced by visual deprivation.
