Goolsby, W. N. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

An open-source system for recording the auditory brainstem response (ABR) and an example application in mice with hearing loss

The auditory brainstem response (ABR) is a measure of the neurophysiological response to sound, widely used in clinical and research settings. In this manuscript, we describe an open-source and low-cost system suitable for measuring the ABR in mice. (This system is not evaluated or approved for clinical use in humans.) The heart of the system is the commercially available Texas Instruments ADS1299 chip, which is designed for multi-channel differential recording of biosignals. We designed auxiliary hardware and software to record and visualize the ABR. To demonstrate that this system is capable of high-quality and low-noise measurements, we recorded the response to free-field auditory clicks from the left and right. Next, we compared different electrode configurations, quantified the most consistent aspects of the ABR, and assessed variability within and across mice. Finally, we demonstrated how to detect the decreased auditory sensitivity caused by surgically induced conductive hearing loss. Users can deploy this open-source system at low cost and customize it for different applications, such as recording other biosignals like electromyography (EMG) or electrocardiography (ECG).

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Sound-seeking before and after hearing loss in mice

How we move our bodies affects how we perceive sound. For instance, we can explore an environment to seek out the source of a sound and we can use head movements to compensate for hearing loss. How we do this is not well understood because many auditory experiments are designed to limit head and body movements. To study the role of movement in hearing, we developed a behavioral task called sound-seeking that rewarded mice for tracking down an ongoing sound source. Over the course of learning, mice more efficiently navigated to the sound. We then asked how auditory behavior was affected by hearing loss induced by surgical removal of the malleus from the middle ear. An innate behavior, the auditory startle response, was abolished by bilateral hearing loss and unaffected by unilateral hearing loss. Similarly, performance on the sound-seeking task drastically declined after bilateral hearing loss and did not recover. In striking contrast, mice with unilateral hearing loss were only transiently impaired on sound-seeking; over a recovery period of about a week, they regained high levels of performance, increasingly reliant on a different spatial sampling strategy. Thus, even in the face of permanent unilateral damage to the peripheral auditory system, mice recover their ability to perform a naturalistic sound-seeking task. This paradigm provides an opportunity to examine how body movement enables better hearing and resilient adaptation to sensory deprivation.

animal behavior and cognition↗