Measurements of bone conduction auditory brainstem response with the new audiometric bone conduction transducer Radioear B81.

OBJECTIVE: To compare recordings of bone conduction (BC) stimulated auditory brainstem response (ABR) obtained using the newer BC transducer Radioear B81 and the conventional BC transducer Radioear B71. Balanced electromagnetic separation transducer (BEST) design found in the B81 may influence the ABR magnitudes and latencies, as well as electrical artefacts. DESIGN: ABRs to tone burst stimuli of 500 Hz, 2000 Hz, 4000 Hz, click stimulation, and broad-band chirp stimulation at 20 and 50 dB nHL were recorded. For each device, stimulus and intensity level, the ABR Jewett wave V amplitude and latency were obtained. The device-related electrical stimulus artefacts on the ABR recordings were also analysed by calculating the Hilbert envelope of the peri-stimulus recording segments. STUDY SAMPLE: Twenty-three healthy adults with normal hearing were included in the study. RESULTS: The ABRs obtained by the B81 were similar to that of the B71 in terms of ABR wave V amplitude and latency. However, the B81 produced smaller electrical artefacts than B71 and this difference was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The BC transducer Radioear B81 provides ABRs comparable to Radioear B71 while causing smaller artefacts.

Hierarchical neural encoding of temporal regularity in the human auditory cortex.

Temporal regularity provides an important cue for the identification of natural sounds. Here, we measured auditory evoked cortical magnetic fields to investigate the neural processing of temporal regularity that cannot be tonotopically represented in the auditory periphery. Auditory steady state responses (ASSR) and sustained fields (SF) elicited by 40 Hz amplitude modulated periodic and non-periodic noises were analyzed. Periodic noises of 40-, 20-, and 5-Hz were prepared in the form of repeating frozen noises where the same noise segment appears at either each period (40 Hz), every second period (20 Hz), or every eighth period (5 Hz) of amplitude modulation. Compared to non-periodic white noises, periodic noises with repetition rates of 5-, 20-, and 40-Hz caused significantly increased SF amplitudes in both hemispheres. ASSR amplitudes were significantly enhanced for 20- and 40-Hz periodic noises in the right hemisphere while no enhancement was observed for periodic noises in the left hemisphere. The observed variation of the regularity effect between evoked response components and hemispheres may reflect the differences in the temporal integration window lengths adopted between ASSR and SF generators and also between the right and left auditory pathways.

Differential effects of temporal regularity on auditory-evoked response amplitude: a decrease in silence and increase in noise.

BACKGROUND: In daily life, we are continuously exposed to temporally regular and irregular sounds. Previous studies have demonstrated that the temporal regularity of sound sequences influences neural activity. However, it remains unresolved how temporal regularity affects neural activity in noisy environments, when attention of the listener is not focused on the sound input. METHODS: In the present study, using magnetoencephalography we investigated the effects of temporal regularity in sound signal sequencing (regular vs. irregular) in silent versus noisy environments during distracted listening. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that temporal regularity differentially affected the auditory-evoked N1m response depending on the background acoustic environment: the N1m amplitudes elicited by the temporally regular sounds were smaller in silence and larger in noise than those elicited by the temporally irregular sounds. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the human auditory system is able to involuntarily utilize temporal regularity in sound signals to modulate the neural activity in the auditory cortex in accordance with the surrounding acoustic environment.

Prepulse inhibition of auditory change-related cortical responses.

BACKGROUND: Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response is an important tool to investigate the biology of schizophrenia. PPI is usually observed by use of a startle reflex such as blinking following an intense sound. A similar phenomenon has not been reported for cortical responses. RESULTS: In 12 healthy subjects, change-related cortical activity in response to an abrupt increase of sound pressure by 5 dB above the background of 65 dB SPL (test stimulus) was measured using magnetoencephalography. The test stimulus evoked a clear cortical response peaking at around 130 ms (Change-N1m). In Experiment 1, effects of the intensity of a prepulse (0.5 ~ 5 dB) on the test response were examined using a paired stimulation paradigm. In Experiment 2, effects of the interval between the prepulse and test stimulus were examined using interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 50 ~ 350 ms. When the test stimulus was preceded by the prepulse, the Change-N1m was more strongly inhibited by a stronger prepulse (Experiment 1) and a shorter ISI prepulse (Experiment 2). In addition, the amplitude of the test Change-N1m correlated positively with both the amplitude of the prepulse-evoked response and the degree of inhibition, suggesting that subjects who are more sensitive to the auditory change are more strongly inhibited by the prepulse. CONCLUSIONS: Since Change-N1m is easy to measure and control, it would be a valuable tool to investigate mechanisms of sensory gating or the biology of certain mental diseases such as schizophrenia.

Diabetic mice show an aggravated course of herpes-simplex virus-induced facial nerve paralysis.

HYPOTHESIS: Bell's palsy is highly associated with diabetes mellitus. BACKGROUND: The cause of Bell's palsy in diabetes mellitus is not completely understood. Diabetic mononeuropathy or reactivation of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) may be responsible for the facial paralysis seen in diabetic patients. We previously reported transient and ipsilateral facial paralysis in mice inoculated with HSV-1. In this study, we examined the neuropathogenesis of HSV-1 in diabetic mice to clarify the relationship between Bell's palsy and diabetes mellitus. METHODS: We compared the incidence and course of facial paralysis after HSV-1 inoculation in diabetic and nondiabetic mice groups. Diabetic mice were prepared by intraperitoneal streptozotocin injection. Facial nerve damage was assessed by electrophysiologic and histopathologic examinations. RESULTS: Compared with the nondiabetic group, the incidence of facial nerve paralysis was significantly increased in the diabetic mice. Electrophysiologic examinations and histopathologic changes also revealed that the facial nerve damage was more severe in the diabetic group. CONCLUSION: The aggravated course of HSV-1 infection in diabetes suggests that HSV-1 may be the main causative factor for the increased incidence of facial paralysis in diabetic patients.

Auditory sustained field responses to periodic noise.

BACKGROUND: Auditory sustained responses have been recently suggested to reflect neural processing of speech sounds in the auditory cortex. As periodic fluctuations below the pitch range are important for speech perception, it is necessary to investigate how low frequency periodic sounds are processed in the human auditory cortex. Auditory sustained responses have been shown to be sensitive to temporal regularity but the relationship between the amplitudes of auditory evoked sustained responses and the repetitive rates of auditory inputs remains elusive. As the temporal and spectral features of sounds enhance different components of sustained responses, previous studies with click trains and vowel stimuli presented diverging results. In order to investigate the effect of repetition rate on cortical responses, we analyzed the auditory sustained fields evoked by periodic and aperiodic noises using magnetoencephalography. RESULTS: Sustained fields were elicited by white noise and repeating frozen noise stimuli with repetition rates of 5-, 10-, 50-, 200- and 500 Hz. The sustained field amplitudes were significantly larger for all the periodic stimuli than for white noise. Although the sustained field amplitudes showed a rising and falling pattern within the repetition rate range, the response amplitudes to 5 Hz repetition rate were significantly larger than to 500 Hz. CONCLUSIONS: The enhanced sustained field responses to periodic noises show that cortical sensitivity to periodic sounds is maintained for a wide range of repetition rates. Persistence of periodicity sensitivity below the pitch range suggests that in addition to processing the fundamental frequency of voice, sustained field generators can also resolve low frequency temporal modulations in speech envelope.

Non-linear laws of echoic memory and auditory change detection in humans.

BACKGROUND: The detection of any abrupt change in the environment is important to survival. Since memory of preceding sensory conditions is necessary for detecting changes, such a change-detection system relates closely to the memory system. Here we used an auditory change-related N1 subcomponent (change-N1) of event-related brain potentials to investigate cortical mechanisms underlying change detection and echoic memory. RESULTS: Change-N1 was elicited by a simple paradigm with two tones, a standard followed by a deviant, while subjects watched a silent movie. The amplitude of change-N1 elicited by a fixed sound pressure deviance (70 dB vs. 75 dB) was negatively correlated with the logarithm of the interval between the standard sound and deviant sound (1, 10, 100, or 1000 ms), while positively correlated with the logarithm of the duration of the standard sound (25, 100, 500, or 1000 ms). The amplitude of change-N1 elicited by a deviance in sound pressure, sound frequency, and sound location was correlated with the logarithm of the magnitude of physical differences between the standard and deviant sounds. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that temporal representation of echoic memory is non-linear and Weber-Fechner law holds for the automatic cortical response to sound changes within a suprathreshold range. Since the present results show that the behavior of echoic memory can be understood through change-N1, change-N1 would be a useful tool to investigate memory systems.

Reelin-disabled-1 signaling in the mature rat cochlear nucleus.

CONCLUSION: Immunohistochemical detection of Reelin in granular cells and disabled-1 in cochlear nucleus suggests a possible Reelin signaling pathway in mature rat cochlear nucleus. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six-week-old Wister rats were used throughout this study. The expression of reelin and disabled-1 were studied by using in situ hybridization technique and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Reelin mRNA expression was observed in granular cell layer of dorsal cochlear nucleus. Immunohistochemistry using anti-reelin monoclonal antibodies confirmed reelin expression in granule cells at protein level. We also examined disabled-1 expression in cochlear nucleus and observed positive immunoreactivity in both ventricular and dorsal cochlear nucleus. In the dorsal cochlear nucleus, fusiform and cartwheel cells were labeled. In the ventricular cochlear nucleus, relatively large cells were labeled with anti-disabled-1 polyclonal antibody but the subtypes of disabled-1 positive cells could not be identified.