DEPRIVATION EFFECTS ON CENTRAL AUDITORY SYSTEM FUNCTION

这项研究的长期目标是了解 剥夺正常的听觉经验会影响发育和 中枢听觉系统(CAS)的功能，特别是如何 剥夺会影响这个系统的复杂编码特性。而当 已经进行了全面、系统的研究，以定义和理解 由终末器官损伤引起的去传入的影响是相同的 方法尚未应用于剥夺声音的调查 在正常的神经系统中的输入。这项研究将提高我们的 对传导性听力损失对发育影响的认识 幼儿的言语和语言技能，以及声音处理能力 在有类似缺陷的成年人中。 这个应用程序提出了一系列问题，这些问题对于 我们对这个问题的理解，并提出了一系列实验 这将使我们深入了解由 传导性听力损失。这些初步研究的重点是定义 剥夺对听觉突触前短时变化的影响 系统活动和代谢功能的相关测量，然后 定义CAS中可能发生的次要结构修改 这些功能变化。在此，我们建议对 剥夺的后果，包括确定多个单位 电生理活动和代谢功能的研究，包括 CAS中的蛋白质合成、酶活性和葡萄糖利用。我们 建议在这些研究之后，对终端领域进行详细分析 双耳神经支配的外侧神经元的三级组织 上橄榄核。这些研究将形成更多的框架 详细研究突触的组织和生理编码 属性在未来的研究中。

The long-term objective of this research is to understand the way in which deprivation of normal auditory experience affects the development and function of the central auditory system (CAS), and specifically how deprivation affects the complex coding properties of this system. While comprehensive, systematic studies have been done to define and understand the effects of deafferentation resulting from end organ damage, the same approach has yet to be applied to investigation of deprivation of sound input in a normally innervated system. This research will enhance our understanding of the impact of conductive hearing loss on the development of speech and language skills in the young child, and on sound processing in adults with similar deficits. This application formulates a series of questions which are critical to our understanding of this problem, and proposes a series of experiments which will give insight into the nature of the deficit created by a conductive hearing loss. The focus of these initial studies is on defining the effect of deprivation on short term presynaptic changes in auditory system activity and associated measures of metabolic function, and then defining structural modifications in the CAS that may occur secondary to these functional changes. We propose herein a systematic study of the consequences of deprivation, including determination of multiunit electrophysiologic activity and a study of metabolic function, including protein synthesis, enzyme activity, and glucose utilization in the CAS. We propose to follow these studies with a detailed analysis of terminal field organization in third order, binaurally innervated, neurons of the lateral superior olivary nucleus. These studies will form the framework for more detailed studies of synaptic organization and physiological coding properties in future studies.