Premium
IV. The physiological effects of priming for audiogenic seizures in mice
Author(s) -
Saunders James C.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1288/00005537-197405000-00006
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , neuroscience , audiology , psychology , priming (agriculture) , biology , medicine , cognitive psychology , botany , germination
Recent investigations have shown that nonsusceptible strains of mice can be made susceptible to audiogenic seizures by exposing them to intense sound during a “sensitive period.” The parameters of seizures behavior that accompany this priming procedure have been studied extensively and more recently the physiological processes that are associated with this phenomenon have received attention. The results indicate that priming causes a severe loss in cochlear microphonic sensitivity and extensive damage to basal turn hair cells. The patterns of evoked response activity in peripheral auditory nuclei show a loss in threshold sensitivity at low stimulus levels and over recruitment of response amplitude at high stimulus levels. Although there is a severe loss of cochlear function in these animals, intense stimuli paradoxically evoke exceptionally large re‐responses and precipitate seizure behavior. Several hypotheses concerning this paradox are offered, and the potential significance of the priming phenomenon is considered.