Cortical region-specific recovery of auditory temporal processing following noise-induced hearing loss

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) studies have focused on the lemniscal auditory pathway, but little is known about how NIHL impacts different cortical regions. Here we compared response recovery trajectories in the auditory and frontal cortices (AC, FC) of mice following NIHL. We recorded EEG responses from awake mice (male n = 15, female n = 14) before and following NIHL (longitudinal design) to quantify event related potentials and gap-in-noise temporal processing. Hearing loss was verified by measuring the auditory brainstem response (ABR) before and at 1-, 10-, 23-, and 45-days after noise-exposure. Resting EEG, event related potentials (ERP) and auditory steady state responses (ASSR) were recorded at the same time-points after NIHL. The inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) of the ASSR was measured to quantify the ability of AC and FC to synchronize responses to short gaps embedded in noise. Despite the absence of click-evoked ABRs up to 90 dB SPL and up to 45-days post-exposure, ERPs from the AC and FC showed full recovery in ∼ 50 % of the mice to pre-NIHL levels in both AC and FC. The ASSR ITPC was reduced following NIHL in AC and FC in all the mice on day 1 after NIHL. The AC showed full recovery of ITPC over 45-days. Despite ERP amplitude recovery, the FC does not show recovery of ASSR ITPC. These results indicate post-NIHL plasticity with similar response amplitude recovery across AC and FC, but cortical region-specific trajectories in temporal processing recovery.