title: Increased Synchrony and Bursting of Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus Fusiform Cells Correlate with Tinnitus.
abstract: Tinnitus, the perception of phantom sounds, is thought to arise from increased neural synchrony, which facilitates perceptual binding and creates salient sensory features in the absence of physical stimuli. In the auditory cortex, increased spontaneous cross-unit synchrony and single-unit bursting are de facto physiological correlates of tinnitus. However, it is unknown whether neurons in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), the putative tinnitus-induction site, exhibit increased synchrony. Using a temporary-threshold shift model and gap-prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle to assess tinnitus, we recorded spontaneous activity from fusiform cells, the principle neurons of the DCN, in normal hearing, tinnitus, and non-tinnitus guinea pigs. Synchrony and bursting, as well as spontaneous firing rate (SFR), correlated with behavioral evidence of tinnitus, and increased synchrony and bursting were associated with SFR elevation. The presence of increased synchrony and bursting in DCN fusiform cells suggests that a neural code for phantom sounds emerges in this brainstem location and likely contributes to the formation of the tinnitus percept.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tinnitus, a phantom auditory percept, is encoded by pathological changes in the neural synchrony code of perceptual processing. Increased cross-unit synchrony and bursting have been linked to tinnitus in several higher auditory stations but not in fusiform cells of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), key brainstem neurons in tinnitus generation. Here, we demonstrate increased synchrony and bursting of fusiform cell spontaneous firing, which correlate with frequency-specific behavioral measures of tinnitus. Thus, the neural representation of tinnitus emerges early in auditory processing and likely drives its pathophysiology in higher structures.
authors: Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Department of Otolaryngology, and.
authors: Calvin
authors: C
authors: Wu
authors: Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Department of Otolaryngology, and Departments of Biomedical Engineering and.
authors: David T
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0165-6429
authors: DT
authors: Martel
authors: Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Department of Otolaryngology, and Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 sushore@umich.edu.
authors: Susan E
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5300-5492
authors: SE
authors: Shore
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D017626:Cochlear Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009622:Noise; D013216:Reflex, Startle; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: bursting; dorsal cochlear nucleus; fusiform cells; neural synchrony; spontaneous activity; tinnitus