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Abstract #1260

Intratympanic Manganese Administration Revealed Sound Intensity and Frequency Dependent Functional Activity in Rat Auditory Pathway

Mun Han1, Seong-Uk Jin1, Jae-Jun Lee2, Kwan Soo Hong2, Yongmin Chang1, 3

1Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea; 2Division of Magnetic Resonance, Korea Basic Science Institute, Cheongwon, Gyeonggi-do, Korea; 3Department of Radiology & Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea


The cochlear plays a vital role in the sense and sensitivity of hearing; however, there is currently a lack of knowledge regarding the relationships between mechanical transduction of sound at different intensities and frequencies in the cochlear and the neurochemical processes that lead to neuronal responses in the central auditory system. In the current study, we introduced manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI), a convenient in vivo imaging method, for investigation of how sound, at different intensities and frequencies, is propagated from the cochlear to the central auditory system. Using MEMRI with intratympanic administration, we demonstrated differential manganese signal enhancements according to sound intensity and frequencies in the ascending auditory pathway of the rat after administration of intratympanic MnCl2.Compared to signal enhancement without explicit sound stimuli, auditory structures in the ascending auditory pathway showed stronger signal enhancement in rats who received sound stimuli of 10 and 40 kHz. In addition, signal enhancement with a stimulation frequency of 40 kHz was stronger than that with 10 kHz. Therefore, the results of this study seem to suggest that, in order to achieve an effective response to high sound intensity or frequency, more firing of auditory neurons, or firing of many auditory neurons together for the pooled neural activity is needed.