Activity of the auditory system in rats habituated to a test chamber: a 2-deoxyglucose study

In a number of species, quantitative 2-deoxyglucose method revealed that the auditory system is much more active than any other-neural system. We tested the hypothesis that stressful experimental conditions may be responsible for this hyperactivity. Three rats received transcatheteral injections of [14C] 2 deoxyglucose while exposed to a wide band noise in a sound-shielded chamber in which they had previously spent 17 habituation sessions. In autoradiograms of these animals the auditory system appeared as intensely labelled (active) as in control animals. We conclude that the high activity of the auditory system in the rat does not seem to result from presumably stressful normal laboratory conditions.