Supra-normal susceptibility to acoustic trauma of the rat pup cochlea.
1 Young and adult rats were exposed to a continuous 120 dB SPL white noise for 30 min. 2 Animals exposed before the 40th postnatal day showed drastic and permanent threshold shifts (PTS) at high frequencies (between 6 and 20 kHz). 3 After 60 days of age, only temporary threshold shifts (TTS) were noticed, which lasted 7 days. 4 Thus the sensory structures of the rat cochlea showed a supra-normal susceptibility to acoustic trauma, during and just after their anatomical differentiation. 5 These results support previous data obtained on hamsters and guinea-pigs and are discussed in terms of anatomo-functional relationships.
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D003051:Cochlea / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats