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      Adding Insult to Injury: Cochlear Nerve Degeneration after "Temporary" Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

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      Journal of Neuroscience
      Society for Neuroscience

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          Abstract

          Overexposure to intense sound can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. Postexposure recovery of threshold sensitivity has been assumed to indicate reversal of damage to delicate mechano-sensory and neural structures of the inner ear and no persistent or delayed consequences for auditory function. Here, we show, using cochlear functional assays and confocal imaging of the inner ear in mouse, that acoustic overexposures causing moderate, but completely reversible, threshold elevation leave cochlear sensory cells intact, but cause acute loss of afferent nerve terminals and delayed degeneration of the cochlear nerve. Results suggest that noise-induced damage to the ear has progressive consequences that are considerably more widespread than are revealed by conventional threshold testing. This primary neurodegeneration should add to difficulties hearing in noisy environments, and could contribute to tinnitus, hyperacusis, and other perceptual anomalies commonly associated with inner ear damage.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Journal of Neuroscience
          Journal of Neuroscience
          Society for Neuroscience
          0270-6474
          1529-2401
          November 11 2009
          November 11 2009
          November 11 2009
          November 11 2009
          : 29
          : 45
          : 14077-14085
          Article
          10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2845-09.2009
          2812055
          19906956
          54c27a56-049b-4006-b5a2-57408aef363c
          © 2009
          History

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