Functional significance of dendritic swelling after loud sounds in the guinea pig cochlea.
Exposure of the guinea pig cochlea to loud pure tones caused a dramatic swelling of afferent dendrites beneath the inner hair cell (IHC). This swelling occurred in a restricted region of the cochlea basalward of the exposure frequency location. For a 110 dB tone swelling was just detectable in 1 micron sections for a 18 3/4 min exposure and was clearly visible after a 22 1/2 min exposure. Swelling was reversible. Exposures which caused swelling produced a loss in sensitivity of the flat low frequency 'tail' of the frequency-threshold curves of single auditory neurons whose most sensitive frequency was a 1/2 octave higher than the exposure frequency. The findings are consistent with the notion that dendritic swelling causes a non-selective decrease in sensitivity to all frequencies of sound.
D000818:Animals; D003051:Cochlea / Q000473:pathology*; D003056:Cochlear Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology; D003712:Dendrites / Q000473:pathology*; D004108:Dilatation, Pathologic; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006199:Hair Cells, Auditory, Inner / Q000473:pathology; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology; D013136:Spiral Ganglion / Q000503:physiopathology