Elsevier

Hearing Research

Volume 16, Issue 2, November 1984, Pages 161-167
Hearing Research

The acoustic startle response in DBA/2 and C57BL/6 mice: relationship to auditory neuronal response properties and hearing impairment

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5955(84)90005-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The acoustic startle response (ASR) was elicited with tone pips in sensorineural hearing-impaired DBA/2 mice and in non-impaired C57BL/6 mice. The influence of stimulus frequency and intensity on ASR amplitude varied as a function of both strain and age. Previous neurophysiological findings indicate that ASR amplitude is correlated with the proportion of neurons in the cochlear nucleus and inferior colliculus that respond to the ASR stimulus frequencies and to the excitability of neurons in these structures. ASR amplitude is not highly correlated with threshold sensitivity. These observations suggest several neural correlates of ASR amplitude and have implications regarding central neuronal response properties associated with sensorineural hearing loss.

References (20)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (58)

  • Increasing GABA reverses age-related alterations in excitatory receptive fields and intensity coding of auditory midbrain neurons in aged mice

    2017, Neurobiology of Aging
    Citation Excerpt :

    There is still a debate over whether there is a clearly defined set of eFRA types, or if some neurons exhibit responses that are intermediate classifications or contain characteristics of several of these based on their inhibitory and excitatory projections (Palmer et al., 2013). For this study, we settled on a set of classification types similar to those described in a study by Willott et al., without categorizing every possible continuum (Willott et al., 1984). Previous reports have shown that systemic administration of VGB can reduce tinnitus and improve temporal processing, identified using behavioral measures in rodents (Brozoski et al., 2007; Gleich and Strutz, 2011; Gleich et al., 2003, 2014).

  • Acoustic startle modification as a tool for evaluating auditory function of the mouse: Progress, pitfalls, and potential

    2017, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
    Citation Excerpt :

    Age-related changes in PPI strength depend on the prestimulus conditions in C57BL/6J mice. Tone pulse PPI remains robust except for high frequencies (Fig. 6B) (Willott et al., 1984; Willott and Turner, 1999), but noise-offset PPI declines rapidly after one month of age in this strain (Fig. 6C) (Ison et al., 1998). CBA/CaJ and CBAxC57 hybrid mice also show age-related decline in noise offset PPI, but at different timecourses (Fig. 6C) (Ison et al., 1998).

  • Genetic Models of Reflex Epilepsy and SUDEP in Rats and Mice

    2017, Models of Seizures and Epilepsy: Second Edition
  • The effect of progressive hearing loss on the morphology of endbulbs of Held and bushy cells

    2017, Hearing Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    To characterize the effects of acquired progressive hearing loss on EB and BC structure, we utilized the DBA/2 mouse, a strain that exhibits early-onset sensorineural hearing loss. DBA/2 mice begin to display high-frequency hearing loss at 3–4 weeks of age, shortly after hearing onset (P11; Ehret, 1976) and just before sexual maturity (6–7 wks; Green and Witham, 1991); this loss progresses into adulthood to include the remaining mid-to-low frequencies (Henry and Haythorn, 1975; Hultcrantz and Spangberg, 1997; Johnson et al., 2000; Shin et al., 2010; Willott and Erway, 1998; Willott et al., 1984; Zheng et al., 1999). The pattern of hearing loss of the DBA/2 is closely paired to a progressive loss of inner and outer hair cells (Hultcrantz and Spangberg, 1997), and has been attributed to mutations in two separate proteins—cadherin-23 (Noben-Trauth et al., 2003) and fascin-2 (Shin et al., 2010)—associated with stereocilia stability and function.

  • Electrical stimulation of the dorsal cochlear nucleus induces hearing in rats

    2010, Brain Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    That is, the acoustic startle reflex responses are suppressed when an animal hears an acoustic prepulse signal. It has previously been demonstrated that the degree of aPPI correlates with the level of the acoustic prepulse signals (Barsz et al., 2002; Willott et al., 1984; Willott et al., 1994; Young and Fechter, 1983). In addition, it has been reported that the aPPI paradigm can be used to detect different frequencies of acoustic prepulse signals (Willott et al., 1994), and the results are comparable to those determined by operant behavioral paradigms (Young and Fechter, 1983).

View all citing articles on Scopus

Present address: Department of Psychology, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI 53140, U.S.A.

View full text