title: The effect of monaural middle ear destruction on response properties of neurons in the auditory midbrain of juvenile and adult mice.
abstract: This article reviews our studies of the effect of monaural middle ear destruction on midbrain auditory response properties of the laboratory mouse, Mus musculus. Monaural middle ear destruction was performed on juvenile and adult mice and the auditory sensitivity of neurons in the midbrain inferior colliculus (IC) ipsilateral and contralateral to the intact ear was examined 4 weeks later. When stimulated with sound pulses, IC neurons of the control mice typically had lower minimum threshold, larger dynamic range, and sharper frequency tuning curve than IC neurons of the experimental juvenile and adult mice. In the experimental mice, neurons in the ipsilateral IC had significantly longer latency, higher minimum threshold, and smaller dynamic range than neurons in the contralateral IC. When determined at two sound directions (ipsilateral 40 degrees and contralateral 40 degrees to the recording site), IC neurons of the control mice had higher minimum threshold, sharper frequency tuning curve but smaller dynamic range at I-40 degrees than at C-40 degrees . However, these direction-dependent response properties were not observed for IC neurons of the experimental juvenile and adult mice. Clear tonotopic organization was only observed in the IC of the control mice and experimental adult mice but not in the IC of experimental juvenile mice. These different response properties are discussed in relation to the effect of monaural middle ear destruction.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences and Interdisciplinary, Neurosciences Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. jenp@missouri.edu
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jen
authors.forename: Lijing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D004432:Ear, Middle / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*