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Abstract
Objective: High doses of sodium salicylate (SS) are known to induce tinnitus, general hyperexcitability in the central auditory system, and to cause mild hearing loss. We used the auditory brainstem response (ABR) to assess the effects of SS on auditory sensitivity and temporal processing in the auditory nerve and brainstem. ABRs were evoked using tone burst stimuli varying in frequency and intensity with presentation rates from 11/s to 81/s.
Design: ABRs were recorded and analysed prior to and after SS treatment in each animal, and peak 1 and peak 4 amplitudes and latencies were determined along with minimal response threshold.
Study Sample: Nine young adult CBA/CaJ mice were used in a longitudinal within-subject design.
Results: No measurable effects of presentation rate were found on ABR threshold prior to SS; however, following SS administration increasing stimulus rates lowered ABR thresholds by as much as 10 dB and compressed the peak amplitude by intensity level functions.
Conclusions: These results suggest that SS alters temporal integration and compressive nonlinearity, and that varying the stimulus rate of the ABR may prove to be a useful diagnostic tool in the study of hearing disorders that involve hyperexcitability.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. XiaoXia Zhu for her assistance with animal care and Dr. Adam Dziorny for contributions to the analysis software. We would also like to thank Dr. James Willott for his critique of the manuscript and Dr. Shannon Salvog for copy editing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.