Inner hair cell responses to tonal stimulation in the presence of broadband noise.
The effects of broadband noise (BBN) on the tone-evoked de receptor potential from inner hair cells of guinea pigs were measured. The effects of the noise were: suppression of the receptor potential, no net change, or greater depolarization relative to the tone alone, evoked receptor potential. The effects appear to be consistent with a two-tone suppression hypothesis. The time course of the suppression effect is immediate and constant in time. This observation suggests no obvious involvement of a local feedback loop in outer hair cells or one depending on the efferent nerves. Inner hair cell "sensitivity" is a variable in the magnitude of the suppression. Comparison of masked, tone-evoked de receptor potential intensity functions to responses from auditory-nerve fibers (taken from the literature for experiments using a similar paradigm) differentiates the phenomena of suppression and adaptation in the auditory periphery.
Dolan
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DF
Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor 48109-0506.
Nuttall
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AL
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D006199:Hair Cells, Auditory, Inner / Q000502:physiology*; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*