Changes of acoustic nerve and cochlear nucleus evoked potentials due to repetitive stimulation

Evoked potential recordings were studied in the acoustic nerve and cochlear nucleus of adult decerebrate cats as a function of the tone duration (1-1500 msec) and the tone repetition rate (0.5/sec-200/sec). Response decrements due to repetitive tonal stimulation were primarily a function of the inter-tone interval. At inter-tone intervals longer than 100 msec, no response decrements were observed in the acoustic nerve or the cochlear nucleus. With shorter inter-tone intervals, reversible response decrements of identical magnitudes ocurred in both the acoustic nerve and the cochlear nucleus evoked potentials. The mechanism of response decrement may be due to depression at the hair cell-acoustic nerve junction.