Abstract #5355

Transient reduction in auditory midbrain responses following acute noise exposure

Condon Lau¹, Eddie Wong², Woody Ho¹, Bin Yang³, and Ed Wu^2,4

¹Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ³Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China, ⁴Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Noise pollution can significantly affect sound processing, even without causing hearing loss. In this study, adult rat subjects are exposed to 100 dB sound level noise for 15 minutes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing with sound stimulation are performed before, 7 days after, and 14 days after exposure. ABR results show no significant threshold elevation, indicating no significant abnormalities in and near the ear. fMRI results show significant response reductions in the auditory midbrain 7 days after exposure. This suggests transient changes in central auditory gain following acute noise exposure.

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