Daniel Šuta

Responses to species-specific vocalizations in the auditory cortex of awake and anesthetized guinea pigs

Species-specific vocalizations represent an important acoustical signal that must be decoded in the auditory system of the listener. We were interested in examining to what extent anesthesia may change the process of signal decoding in neurons of the auditory cortex in the guinea pig. With this aim, the multiple-unit activity, either spontaneous or acoustically evoked, was recorded in the auditory cortex of guinea pigs, at first in the awake state and then after the injection of anesthetics (33 mg/kg ketamine with 6.6 mg/kg xylazine). Acoustical stimuli, presented in free-field conditions, consisted of four typical guinea pig calls (purr, chutter, chirp and whistle), a time-reversed version of the whistle and a broad-band noise burst. The administration of anesthesia typically resulted in a decrease in the level of spontaneous activity and in changes in the strength of the neuronal response to acoustical stimuli. The effect of anesthesia was mostly, but not exclusively, suppressive. Diversity in the effects of anesthesia led in some recordings to an enhanced response to one call accompanied by a suppressed response to another call. The temporal pattern of the response to vocalizations was changed in some cases under anesthesia, which may indicate a change in the synaptic input of the recorded neurons. In summary, our results suggest that anesthesia must be considered as an important factor when investigating the processing of complex sounds such as species-specific vocalizations in the auditory cortex.

Effect of auditory cortex lesions on the discrimination of frequency‐modulated tones in rats

The lateralization of functions to individual hemispheres of the mammalian brain remains, with the exception of the human brain, unresolved. The aim of this work was to investigate the ability to discriminate between falling and rising frequency‐modulated (FM) stimuli in rats with unilateral or bilateral lesions of the auditory cortex (AC). Using an avoidance conditioning procedure, thirsty rats were trained to drink in the presence of a rising FM tone and to stop drinking when a falling FM tone was presented. Rats with a lesion of the AC were able to learn to discriminate between rising and falling FM tones; however, they performed significantly worse than did control rats. A greater deficit in the ability to discriminate the direction of frequency modulation was observed in rats with a right or bilateral AC lesion. The discrimination performance (DP) in these rats was significantly worse than the DP in rats with a left AC lesion. Animals with a right or bilateral AC lesion improved their DP mainly by recognizing the pitch at the beginning of the stimuli. The lesioning of the AC in trained animals caused a significant decrease in DP, down to chance levels. Retraining resulted in a significant increase in DP in rats with a left AC lesion; animals with a right lesion improved only slightly. The results demonstrate a hemispheric asymmetry of the rat AC in the recognition of FM stimuli and indicate the dominance of the right AC in the discrimination of the direction of frequency modulation.

Brief exposure of juvenile rats to noise impairs the development of the response properties of inferior colliculus neurons

Temporary impairment of the auditory periphery during the sensitive period of postnatal development of rats may result in a deterioration of neuronal responsiveness in the central auditory nuclei of adult animals. In this study, juvenile rats (postnatal day 14) were exposed for 8 min to intense broad‐band noise; at the age of 3–6 months, the excitatory and inhibitory response areas of neurons in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus were recorded under ketamine–xylazine anaesthesia in these animals and compared with those of age‐matched controls. The response thresholds were similar in the exposed and control animals. The frequency selectivity of low‐frequency neurons was comparable in both groups; however, high‐frequency neurons had significantly wider excitatory response areas in the exposed rats, indicating disrupted development of high‐frequency hearing. Forty‐one per cent and 25% of neurons in exposed animals and in controls, respectively, lacked a distinct inhibitory area; these neurons had similar frequency selectivity in the exposed and control rats. As the presence of an inhibitory sideband was associated with sharper frequency tuning in both groups, it appears that lateral inhibition substantially influences neuronal frequency selectivity. If present, the inhibitory areas had comparable bandwidths in both groups; however, they were shifted to the side in the exposed animals, allowing the expansion of the excitatory areas. The results indicate that a brief exposure of juvenile rats to noise leads to a significant worsening of the frequency selectivity of inferior colliculus neurons in adult animals; the poorer frequency selectivity may be due to missing or displaced inhibitory sidebands.

Representation of species-specific vocalizations in the medial geniculate body of the guinea pig

Individual nuclei of the auditory pathway contribute in a specific way to the processing of complex acoustical signals. We investigated the responses of single neurons to typical guinea pig vocalizations (purr, chutter, chirp and whistle) in the ventral part of the medial geniculate body (MGB) of anesthetized guinea pigs. The neuronal and population peristimulus time histograms (PSTHs) reflected the repetition frequency of individual phrases in the calls. The patterns of PSTHs correlated well with the sound temporal envelope in calls with short phrases (purr, chirp). The dominant onset character of the neuronal responses resulted in a lower correlation between the sound envelope and the PSTH pattern in the case of longer calls (chutter and whistle). A time-reversed version of whistle elicited on average a 13% weaker response than did the natural whistle. The rate-characteristic frequency (CF) profile provided only a coarse representation of the sound frequency spectrum without detailed information about the individual spectral peaks and their relative magnitudes. In comparison with the inferior colliculus (Šuta et al. in J Neurophysiol 90:3794-3808, 2003), the processing of species-specific vocalizations in the MGB differs in: (1) a less precise representation of the temporal envelope in the case of longer calls, but not in the case of calls consisting of one or more short phrases; (2) a less precise rate-CF representation of the spectral envelope in the case of low-frequency calls, but not in the case of broad-band calls; (3) a smaller difference between the responses to natural and time-reversed whistle.

Development of the acoustic startle response in rats and its change after early acoustic trauma.

Even brief acoustic trauma during the critical period of development that results in no permanent hearing threshold shift may lead to altered auditory processing in adulthood. By monitoring the acoustic startle response (ASR), we examined the development of auditory function in control rats and in rats exposed to intense noise at the 14th postnatal day (P14). First ASRs appeared on P10-P11 to intense low-frequency tones. By P14, the range of sound intensities and frequencies eliciting ASRs extended considerably, the ASR reactivity being similar at all frequencies (4-32 kHz). During the subsequent two weeks, ASR amplitudes to low-frequency stimuli (4-8 kHz) increased, whereas the ASRs to high-frequency tones were maintained (16 kHz) or even decreased (32 kHz). Compared to controls, noise exposure on P14 (125 dB SPL for 8, 12, or 25 min) produced transient hyper-reactivity to startle stimuli, manifested by a decrease of ASR thresholds and an increase of ASR amplitudes. ASR enhancement occurred regardless of permanent hearing loss and was more pronounced at high frequencies. The hyper-reactivity of ASRs declined by P30; the ASR amplitudes in adult exposed rats were lower than in controls. The histological control did not reveal loss of hair cells in adult exposed rats, however, the number of inner hair cell ribbon synapses was significantly decreased, especially in the high-frequency part of the cochlea. The results indicate that early acoustic trauma may result in complex changes of ASRs during development.

Cortical representation of species-specific vocalizations in Guinea pig.

We investigated the representation of four typical guinea pig vocalizations in the auditory cortex (AI) in anesthetized guinea pigs with the aim to compare cortical data to the data already published for identical calls in subcortical structures - the inferior colliculus (IC) and medial geniculate body (MGB). Like the subcortical neurons also cortical neurons typically responded to many calls with a time-locked response to one or more temporal elements of the calls. The neuronal response patterns in the AI correlated well with the sound temporal envelope of chirp (an isolated short phrase), but correlated less well in the case of chutter and whistle (longer calls) or purr (a call with a fast repetition rate of phrases). Neuronal rate vs. characteristic frequency profiles provided only a coarse representation of the calls’ frequency spectra. A comparison between the activity in the AI and those of subcortical structures showed a different transformation of the neuronal response patterns from the IC to the AI for individual calls: i) while the temporal representation of chirp remained unchanged, the representations of whistle and chutter were transformed at the thalamic level and the response to purr at the cortical level; ii) for the wideband calls (whistle, chirp) the rate representation of the call spectra was preserved in the AI and MGB at the level present in the IC, while in the case of low-frequency calls (chutter, purr), the representation was less precise in the AI and MGB than in the IC; iii) the difference in the response strength to natural and time-reversed whistle was found to be smaller in the AI than in the IC or MGB.

Frequency discrimination in rats exposed to noise as juveniles

Sound exposure during the early postnatal period can significantly influence the function of the auditory system in rats during adulthood. In the present study, rat pups (strain Long-Evans) were exposed to broad-band noise at 125dB SPL for 8, 12 or 25min on postnatal day 14 and then at the age of 3-5months their frequency discrimination at 4 and 16kHz was assessed using a modified method of the prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex. In all groups of exposed rats, an altered frequency discrimination of the tonal stimuli was observed, in comparison with controls, at 70dB SPL. A worsening of frequency discrimination was observed even in animals exposed for 8min, the auditory thresholds of which were almost identical to that of control animals. The individual auditory thresholds did not correlate with frequency discrimination. The difference in frequency discrimination between the exposed and control animals disappeared at 85-90dB SPL. Our data suggests that brief noise exposure during the critical period of development results in the altered frequency discrimination at moderate sound intensities in adult rats, which may appear even in individuals with normal hearing thresholds.

Reference hearing thresholds in an extended frequency range as a function of age

The ISO 7029 (2000) standard defines normative hearing thresholds H (dB hearing level) as a function of age Y (years), given by H = α(Y - 18)(2), up to 8 kHz. The purpose of this study was to determine reference thresholds above 8 kHz. Hearing thresholds were examined using pure-tone audiometry over the extended frequency range 0.125-16 kHz, and the acquired values were used to specify the optimal approximation of the dependence of hearing thresholds on age. A sample of 411 otologically normal men and women 16-70 years of age was measured in both ears using a high-frequency audiometer and Sennheiser HDA 200 headphones. The coefficients of quadratic, linear, polynomial and power-law approximations were calculated using the least-squares fitting procedure. The approximation combining the square function H = α(Y - 18)(2) with a power-law function H = β(Y - 18)(1.5), both gender-independent, was found to be the most appropriate. Coefficient α was determined at frequencies of 9 kHz (α = 0.021), 10 kHz (α = 0.024), 11.2 kHz (α = 0.029), and coefficient β at frequencies of 12.5 kHz (β = 0.24), 14 kHz (β = 0.32), 16 kHz (β = 0.36). The results could be used to determine age-dependent normal hearing thresholds in an extended frequency range and to normalize hearing thresholds when comparing participants differing in age.

Czech Republic 20 years after Chernobyl accident.

The territory of the Czech Republic was contaminated as a result of the breakdown in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The Czech population received low doses of ionising radiation which, though it could not cause a deterministic impact, could have had stochastic effects expressed in the years following the accident. Twenty years after the accident is a long enough time to assess its stochastic effects, primarily tumours and genetic impairment. The moderate amount of radioactive fallout received by the Czech population in 1986 increased thyroid cancer in the following years; on the other hand, no obvious genetic impact was found.