Rapid Increase in Neural Conduction Time in the Adult Human Auditory Brainstem Following Sudden Unilateral Deafness.

M R D Maslin, S K Lloyd, S Rutherford, S Freeman, A King, D R Moore, K J Munro

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Individuals with sudden unilateral deafness offer a unique opportunity to study plasticity of the binaural auditory system in adult humans. Stimulation of the intact ear results in increased activity in the auditory cortex. However, there are no reports of changes at sub-cortical levels in humans. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate changes in sub-cortical activity immediately before and after the onset of surgically induced unilateral deafness in adult humans. Click-evoked auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) to stimulation of the healthy ear were recorded from ten adults during the course of translabyrinthine surgery for the removal of a unilateral acoustic neuroma. This surgical technique always results in abrupt deafferentation of the affected ear. The results revealed a rapid (within minutes) reduction in latency of wave V (mean pre = 6.55 ms; mean post = 6.15 ms; p 
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalJournal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO
    Volume16
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2015

    Keywords

    • acoustic neuroma
    • auditory brainstem response
    • deafferentation
    • disinhibition
    • neural plasticity
    • unilateral deafness

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