Elsevier

Hearing Research

Volume 9, Issue 3, March 1983, Pages 263-278
Hearing Research

Functional significance of dendritic swelling after loud sounds in the guinea pig cochlea

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5955(83)90031-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Exposure of the guinea pig cochlea to loud pure tones caused a dramatic swelling of afferent dendrites beneath the inner hair cell (IHC). This swelling occurred in a restricted region of the cochlea basalward of the exposure frequency location. For a 110 dB tone swelling wasjust detectable in 1 μm sections for a 18, min exposure and was clearly visible after a 2212 min exposure. Swelling was reversible. Exposures which caused swelling produced a loss in sensitivity of the flat low frequency ‘tail’ of the frequency-threshold curves of single auditory neurons whose most sensitive frequency was a 12 octave higher than the exposure frequency. The findings are consistent with the notion that dendritic swelling causes a non-selective decrease in sensitivity to all frequencies of sound.

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