diminished behavioral and neural sensitivity to sound modulation is associated with moderate developmental hearing loss减少行为和神经敏感性声音调制与适度发展听力损失.pdfVIP

Diminished Behavioral and Neural Sensitivity to Sound Modulation Is Associated with Moderate Developmental Hearing Loss 1 2 4 2,3 Merri J. Rosen *, Emma C. Sarro , Jack B. Kelly , Dan H. Sanes 1 Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, Ohio, United States of America, 2 Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America, 3 Department of Biology, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America, 4 Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Abstract The acoustic rearing environment can alter central auditory coding properties, yet altered neural coding is seldom linked with specific deficits to adult perceptual skills. To test whether developmental hearing loss resulted in comparable changes to perception and sensory coding, we examined behavioral and neural detection thresholds for sinusoidally amplitude modulated (sAM) stimuli. Behavioral sAM detection thresholds for slow (5 Hz) modulations were significantly worse for animals reared with bilateral conductive hearing loss (CHL), as compared to controls. This difference could not be attributed to hearing thresholds, proficiency at the task, or proxies for attention. Detection thresholds across the groups did not differ for fast (100 Hz) modulations, a result paralleling that seen in humans. Neural responses to sAM stimuli were recorded in single auditory cortex neurons from separate groups of awake animals. Neurometric analyses indicated equivalent thresholds for the most sensitive neurons, but a significantly poorer detection threshold for slow modulations across the population of CHL neurons as compared to controls. The magnitude of th