Physiological changes throughout an insect ear due to age and noise - A longitudinal study

Alix Blockley; Daisy Ogle; Charlie Woodrow; Fernando Montealegre-Z; Ben Warren

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104746

Physiological changes throughout an insect ear due to age and noise - A longitudinal study

iScience. 2022 Jul 21;25(9):104746. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104746. eCollection 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Alix Blockley¹, Daisy Ogle¹, Charlie Woodrow², Fernando Montealegre-Z², Ben Warren¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
² School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK.

Abstract

Hearing loss is not unique to humans and is experienced by all animals in the face of wild and eclectic differences in ear morphology. Here, we exploited the high throughput and accessible tympanal ear of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria to rigorously quantify changes in the auditory system due to noise exposure and age. In this exploratory study, we analyzed tympanal displacements, morphology of the auditory Müller's organ and measured activity of the auditory nerve, the transduction current, and electrophysiological properties of individual auditory receptors. This work shows that hearing loss manifests as a complex disorder due to differential effects of age and noise on several processes and cell types within the ear. The "middle-aged deafness" pattern of hearing loss found in locusts mirrors that found for humans exposed to noise early in their life suggesting a fundamental interaction of the use of an auditory system (noise) and its aging.

Keywords: Cellular neuroscience; Entomology; Ethology; Sensory neuroscience.