Effects of Early Conductive Hearing Loss on Auditory Behavior and Information Pro

早期传导性听力损失对听觉行为和信息传递的影响

• 批准号: 8837315
• 负责人: Kelsey Anbuhl
• 金额: $ 2.9万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-12-01 至 2017-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8837315
• 关键词: Acoustics; Adult; Affect; Animal Testing; Animals; Attenuated; Auditory; Auditory system; Behavior; Behavioral; Birth; Cavia; Cell Nucleus; Child; Childhood; Chronic; Code; Collection; Conductive hearing loss; Control Animal; Cues; Development; Discrimination; Ear; Earplug; Environment; Excision; Ferrets; Frequencies; Gerbils; Goals; Growth; Head; Hearing; Hearing problem; Impairment; Inferior Colliculus; Language; Language Disorders; Life; Liquid substance; Location; Measures; Methods; Metric; Mission; Mus; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; Neurons; Noise; Obstruction; Otitis Media; Performance; Peripheral; Relative (related person); Research; Role; Sound Localization; Source; Space Perception; Speech; Stimulus; System; Techniques; Testing; Time; Work; auditory pathway; base; binaural hearing; clinically relevant; design; ear infection; early experience; early onset; experience; external ear auricle; extracellular; hearing impairment; in vivo; information processing; insight; mature animal; middle ear; neural information processing; neurophysiology; prepulse inhibition; prevent; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sensory system; sound

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic ear infections resulting in a conductive hearing loss (CHL) during development can produce long-term deficits in auditory functions, including those involved with binaural hearing. These include impairment in locating sounds in space, detecting sounds in noisy environments, as well as acquisition of speech and language- all tasks that require the proper integration of information from both ears. In particular, the cue to sound location, which include interaural time (ITD) and level (ILD) difference cues, rely heavily on the proper input of sound information from both ears. Since CHL can attenuate and delay incoming sounds, the cues to sound location can thus be effectively altered. The presence of a CHL during developmental sensitive periods early in life may result in the binaural auditory system adapting to altered binaural cues to location instead of the normal cues, thus providing a possible basis for the persistent spatial hearing problems observed clinically in children. The exact mechanism underlying these persistent effects, however, is not entirely known. Several animal studies have attempted to elucidate the central mechanisms in the developing auditory system, yet few have comprehensively examined the long-term behavioral consequences of early CHL, and none have fully examined its effects on neural information processing of cues to sound location. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to understand the effects of early CHL on (1) behavioral sound localization ability and (2) information processing by neurons sensitive to sound location. Towards these goals, the Specific Aims of the proposed research are to (1) assess behavioral sound localization ability in adult guinea pigs reared with a unilateral CHL and (2) to evaluate the information processing capabilities of neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) in the same animals reared with a unilateral CHL. Experiments will integrate both behavior and in vivo electrophysiological techniques to jointly assess the effects of early CHL on the binaural auditory system. We hypothesize that early CHL will result in persistent sound localization deficits relative to normal control animals, as well as an impairment in neural information processing of the ILD cue to sound location. In general, we expect greater behavioral deficits to be associated with a reduction in ILD information processing, and that this may provide a possible basis for the persistent spatial hearing deficits observed in children who experienced chronic ear infections early in development. The proposed work is specifically designed to support the mission of NIDCD by advancing the basic understanding of the developing binaural auditory system with clinical relevance to childhood hearing disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：在发育过程中导致传导性听力损失（CHL）的慢性耳部感染可能会导致听觉功能的长期缺陷，包括与双耳听力有关的功能缺陷。这些包括在空间中定位声音、在嘈杂环境中检测声音以及获取语音和语言方面的障碍——所有任务都需要正确整合来自双耳的信息。特别是，声音位置提示，包括耳间时间（ITD）和电平（ILD）差异提示，在很大程度上依赖于来自双耳的声音信息的正确输入。由于 CHL 可以衰减和延迟传入的声音，因此可以有效地改变声音位置的提示。在生命早期的发育敏感期，CHL 的存在可能会导致双耳听觉系统适应改变的双耳位置线索，而不是正常线索，从而为临床观察到的儿童持续空间听力问题提供可能的基础。然而，这些持久影响背后的确切机制尚不完全清楚。一些动物研究试图阐明发育中的听觉系统的中心机制，但很少有人全面研究早期 CHL 的长期行为后果，也没有人充分研究其对声音位置线索的神经信息处理的影响。因此，本研究的主要目标是了解早期 CHL 对 (1) 行为声音定位能力和 (2) 对声音位置敏感的神经元的信息处理的影响。为了实现这些目标，拟议研究的具体目标是（1）评估单侧 CHL 饲养的成年豚鼠的行为声音定位能力，以及（2）评估下丘（IC）神经元的信息处理能力。用单侧 CHL 饲养的相同动物。实验将整合行为和体内电生理技术，共同评估早期 CHL 对双耳听觉系统的影响。我们假设早期 CHL 将导致相对于正常对照动物持续的声音定位缺陷以及损伤 ILD 提示声音位置的神经信息处理。一般来说，我们预计更大的行为缺陷与 ILD 信息处理的减少有关，这可能为在发育早期经历慢性耳部感染的儿童中观察到的持续空间听力缺陷提供可能的基础。拟议的工作专门旨在通过促进对与儿童听力障碍临床相关的双耳听觉系统的发展的基本理解来支持 NIDCD 的使命。