HAIR CELL REGENERATION--FUNCTIONAL SIGNFICANCE

听力的丧失以及由此带来的一切后果是毁灭性的 儿童和成人的言语和语言。 的 鸟类毛细胞再生的发现为人类提供了新的希望 最终通过毛细胞再生恢复人类的听力。 因此，重要的是要知道听力是否充分。 恢复后的毛细胞再生的鸟类，如果没有，什么是 对听力和发声产生永久性的、持久的影响。 这一领域的进展一直具有挑战性，因为直到最近， 完全没有动物模型来研究 听力损失对发声输出和发声学习的影响。 本研究 计划继续努力了解功能恢复情况， 听觉细胞再生 现在我们特别关注两个物种， 提供了完全不同但独特的机会， 恢复功能。这种新的、更有针对性的努力是新的 和令人兴奋的发现。 首先，我们关注 了解虎皮鹦鹉听力恢复与 恢复发音的准确性和发音的学习。 的新方法 控制动物的发声和学习开启了一个全新的领域 研究听力损失和发声的窗口。 第二 新的焦点是比利时沃特斯拉格金丝雀。 我们以前的工作 证实这说明有一个遗传性听力障碍，由于 基乳头上的毛细胞缺失或受损， 不断地再生新的毛细胞， 再生可以治愈BWS中的一些遗传性阈值偏移 金丝雀

The loss of hearing, and all that entails, has devastating consequences for human speech and language both in children and adults. The discovery of hair cell regeneration in birds has provided new hope of eventually restoring hearing in humans through hair cell regeneration. For this reason, it is important to know whether hearing is fully restored following hair cell regeneration in birds and, if not, what are the permanent, enduring effects on hearing and vocal production. Progress in this area has been challenging because, until recently, there is a complete absence of animal models for studying the effect of hearing loss on vocal output and vocal learning. The present research plan continues effort to understand the recovery of function following hear cell regeneration. Now we focus specifically on two species that provide quite different but unique opportunities for understanding the recovery of function. This new, more focused effort is the result of new and exciting findings from the last project period. First, we focus on understanding the relation between hearing recovery in budgerigars and the recovery in vocal precision and vocal learning. A new method for controlling vocal production and learning in an animal opens a whole new window on the study of hearing loss and vocal production. The second new focus is on the Belgian Waterslager canary. Our previous work confirmed that this specifies has an inherited hearing disorder due to missing or damaged hair cells on the basilar papilla, that they are constantly regenerating new hair cells, and that increasing the rate of regeneration can cure some of the inherited threshold shift in BWS canaries.