Intracochlear, electrical, multichannel stimulation effects on the development of auditory system in neonatally deafened kittens

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of chronic electrical stimulation in acoustically deprivated animals during maturation.

Materials and methods: Latencies of EABR measurements from acoustically deprivated and acoustically deprivated, but electrically stimulated animals were compared with ABR from normal hearing cats. In addition, morphological analyses of the cochlear nuclei and the auditory cortex and their subdivisions were done.

Results and discussion: EABR latencies demonstrated that the most peripheral auditory pathway is more independent from the normal auditory or external electrical stimulation than the more central regions. Morphological analysis also demonstrated the reverse of the acoustically deprivation effect during maturation in the auditory cortex via intracochlear electrical stimulation.