Rapid ReportSpecific and rapid effects of acoustic stimulation on the tonotopic distribution of Kv3.1b potassium channels in the adult rat
Section snippets
Acoustic stimulation
Twenty-seven awake adult (8–12 week-old) Sprague–Dawley rats (Charles River Laboratories, Wilmington, MA, USA) were exposed to amplitude modulation (AM) stimuli for a 30 min period at 65 dB sound pressure level (SPL) in a small sound attenuating chamber. All experimental protocols involving animals were approved by the Yale University Animal Use and Care Committee. Protocols were carefully designed to minimize both the number of animals used and their suffering. A total of six stimuli were used
Results
In vivo single-unit studies have demonstrated that MNTB principal neurons synchronize their action potentials to the phase of AM sound stimuli across a wide range of modulation rates (Joris and Yin, 1998, Kadner and Berrebi, 2008, Kopp-Scheinpflug et al., 2008), making it possible to precisely control their activity patterns in vivo by exposing animals to AM sounds. In vitro, MNTB neurons from animals lacking the Kv3.1 gene can readily follow 60 Hz stimulation, but are incapable of following
Discussion
The amount of Kv3.1b current in an MNTB principal neuron determines its ability to follow high rates of synaptic stimulation (Macica et al., 2003, Song et al., 2005). One established mechanism by which Kv3.1b currents become enhanced to permit high frequency firing is through dephosphorylation at Ser503 (Macica et al., 2003). Whereas Kv3.1b is basally phosphorylated at Ser503 under quiet/control conditions, it undergoes dephosphorylation following seconds to minutes of auditory stimulation in
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants DC001919 (L.K.K.) and DC009488 (D.B.P.). We thank Gregory Derderian for technical assistance and Christian von Hehn for critical reading of the manuscript.
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Present address: Eaton-Peabody Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, MA 02114, USA.