Hearing in Belgian Waterslager Canaries

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的主要目标是为比利时水手金丝雀的听力提供更完整的评估。这种金丝雀有一种遗传性听力损失，与毛细胞缺失和受损有关。除了提高纯音阈值，特别是在高频下，这些毛细胞异常是如何影响听力的，人们知之甚少。在这项研究中，将使用心理声学方法来调查比利时水犬和正常听力金丝雀的听力。在一系列行为实验中，我将评估发声的频率分析、时间处理和感知。比利时金丝雀在这些任务上的表现将与正常听力金丝雀的表现进行比较。此外，我将研究噪音暴露后这些鸟类毛细胞损伤和再生的行为影响，然后对基底乳头进行解剖学研究。金丝雀之所以成为听力实验特别有趣的对象，是因为它们被用于许多关于发声学习和神经发生的行为和神经生物学研究。因此，拟议的实验将增加我们对这些鸟类听力障碍的功能后果的了解，以及总体上的听力障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The main goal of the proposed research is to provide a more complete assessment of hearing in the Belgian Waterslager canary. This strain of canary has a hereditary hearing loss associated with missing and damaged hair cells. Little is known about how these hair cell abnormalities affect hearing, other than elevating pure tone thresholds, particularly at high frequencies. In the present study, psychoacoustic methods will be used to investigate hearing abilities in Belgian Waterslager and normal hearing canaries. In a series of behavioral experiments, I will assess frequency analysis, temporal processing, and perception of vocalizations. The performance of Belgian Waterslager canaries on these tasks will be compared to the performance of normal hearing canaries. In addition, I will investigate the behavioral effects of hair cell damage and regeneration after noise exposure in these birds, followed by an anatomical study of the basilar papillae. What makes canaries especially interesting subjects for hearing experiments is that they have been used in many behavioral and neurobiological studies of vocal learning and neurogenesis. Thus, the proposed experiments will increase our understanding of the functional consequences of hearing impairment in these birds, and of hearing impairment in general.