0000000000780625
AUTHOR
Christina Closhen
The brainstem efferent acoustic chiasm in pigmented and albino rats
Abstract The present study examined whether structural peculiarities in the brain-efferent pathway to the organ of Corti may underlie functional differences in hearing between pigmented and albino individuals of the same mammalian species. Pigmented Brown-Norway rats and albino Wistar rats received unilateral injections of an aqueous solution of the retrograde neuronal tracer Fluorogold (FG) into the scala tympani of the cochlea to identify olivocochlear neurons (OCN) in the brainstem superior olivary complex. After five days, brains were perfusion-fixed and brainstem sections were cut and analyzed with respect to retrogradely labeled neurons. Intrinsic neurons of the lateral system were lo…
Absence of Early Neuronal Death in the Olivocochlear System Following Acoustic Overstimulation
This study was conducted to examine possible effects of noise trauma on olivocochlear (OC) neurons. Anesthetized rats were exposed to a continuous 10 kHz pure tone at 120 dB sound pressure level for 2 hrs. The effects of treatment were verified by recordings of auditory brainstem response and distortion product otoacoustic emission. Three or 8 days after acoustic trauma, rats received unilateral injections of an aqueous solution of the retrograde neuronal tracer Fluorogold (FG) into the scala tympani to identify OC neurons (OCN). Five days after FG injection, brains were perfusion-fixed, and brainstem sections were cut and analyzed with respect to FG-labeled neurons. We found that, in both …