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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 11, 2009, 29(45):14077-14085; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2845-09.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Adding Insult to Injury: Cochlear Nerve Degeneration after "Temporary" Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Sharon G. Kujawa1,2,3,4 and M. Charles Liberman1,2,4

1Department of Otology and Laryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 2Eaton-Peabody Laboratory and 3Department of Audiology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, and 4Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Division of Health Science and Technology, Harvard–Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Correspondence should be addressed to Sharon G. Kujawa, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114-3096. Email: sharon_kujawa{at}meei.harvard.edu

Overexposure to intense sound can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. Postexposure recovery of threshold sensitivity has been assumed to indicate reversal of damage to delicate mechano-sensory and neural structures of the inner ear and no persistent or delayed consequences for auditory function. Here, we show, using cochlear functional assays and confocal imaging of the inner ear in mouse, that acoustic overexposures causing moderate, but completely reversible, threshold elevation leave cochlear sensory cells intact, but cause acute loss of afferent nerve terminals and delayed degeneration of the cochlear nerve. Results suggest that noise-induced damage to the ear has progressive consequences that are considerably more widespread than are revealed by conventional threshold testing. This primary neurodegeneration should add to difficulties hearing in noisy environments, and could contribute to tinnitus, hyperacusis, and other perceptual anomalies commonly associated with inner ear damage.

Received June 16, 2009; revised Oct. 5, 2009; accepted Oct. 6, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Sharon G. Kujawa, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, 243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114-3096. Email: sharon_kujawa{at}meei.harvard.edu


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