Sound-seeking before and after hearing loss in mice
Jessica Mai1, Rowan Gargiullo1, Megan Zheng1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
Scientific Reports
|August 19, 2024
Summary
Mice use body movement to find sounds, compensating for hearing loss. This study shows movement helps mice adapt to unilateral hearing damage, unlike bilateral damage.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Perception
- Sensory Compensation
Background:
- Head and body movements influence sound perception and localization.
- Auditory research often restricts natural movements, limiting understanding of movement's role.
- Compensatory strategies for hearing loss are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of body movement in auditory perception and sound localization.
- To examine how mice adapt their sound-seeking behavior following hearing loss.
- To understand the neural and behavioral mechanisms of sensory compensation.
Main Methods:
- Developed a "sound-seeking" behavioral task rewarding freely moving mice for locating sound sources.
- Induced hearing loss through surgical removal of the malleus (middle ear bone).
- Assessed sound-seeking performance and startle reflex after unilateral and bilateral hearing loss.
Main Results:
- Mice learned to efficiently navigate to sound sources in the sound-seeking task.
- Bilateral hearing loss severely impaired and prevented recovery of sound-seeking performance.
- Unilateral hearing loss caused transient impairment, followed by recovery within a week, with mice adopting a sequential search strategy.
- The startle reflex was preserved after unilateral hearing loss but abolished by bilateral hearing loss.
Conclusions:
- Mice can compensate for permanent unilateral peripheral auditory damage using body movement strategies.
- Movement plays a crucial role in auditory perception and adaptation to sensory deficits.
- The sound-seeking paradigm offers a novel approach to study movement-enhanced perception and sensory resilience.
More Related Videos
09:54Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Ribbon Synapses at Specific Frequency Regions of the Mouse Cochlea
Published on: May 10, 2019
11.8K
07:13Modified Experimental Conditions for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Mice and Assessment of Hearing Function and Outer Hair Cell Damage
Published on: February 10, 2023
2.2K
Related Concept Videos
01:31Hearing
When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.
01:13The Cochlea
The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.
01:06Echo
The human ear cannot distinguish between two sources of sound if they happen to reach within a specific time interval, typically 0.1 seconds apart. More than this, and they are perceived as separate sources.
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case, then the...
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case, then the...