Sodium salicylate improves detection of amplitude-modulated sound in mice

Maurits M van den Berg; Aaron B Wong; Ghais Houtak; Ross S Williamson; J Gerard G Borst

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109691

Sodium salicylate improves detection of amplitude-modulated sound in mice

iScience. 2024 Apr 9;27(5):109691. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109691. eCollection 2024 May 17.

Authors

Maurits M van den Berg¹, Aaron B Wong¹, Ghais Houtak¹, Ross S Williamson², J Gerard G Borst¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, NL-3015 GD Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
² Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.

Abstract

Salicylate is commonly used to induce tinnitus in animals, but its underlying mechanism of action is still debated. We therefore tested its effects on the firing properties of neurons in the mouse inferior colliculus (IC). Salicylate induced a large decrease in the spontaneous activity and an increase of ∼20 dB SPL in the minimum threshold of single units. In response to sinusoidally modulated noise (SAM noise) single units showed both an increase in phase locking and improved rate coding. Mice also became better at detecting amplitude modulations, and a simple threshold model based on the IC population response could reproduce this improvement. The responses to dynamic random chords (DRCs) suggested that the improved AM encoding was due to a linearization of the cochlear output, resulting in larger contrasts during SAM noise. These effects of salicylate are not consistent with the presence of tinnitus, but should be taken into account when studying hyperacusis.

Keywords: Cell biology; Cellular neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience.