Auditory responses in cats produced by pulsed ultrasound

Abstract

Auditory nerve responses and cochlear microphonics are produced in cats by pulsed 5‐MHz ultrasonic energy from a transducer placed against the dura mater. The pulses must be relatively intense (∼30 W/cm2) to produce a response, but can be sufficiently brief (less than 70 μs) that the brain tissue is not observably heated. The cats apparently respond to radiation pressure transients accompanying the absorption of the ultrasound in the brain tissue. Both the amplitude and latency of the N1 neural responses to the ultrasound can be matched to those produced by relatively weak tone pips or clicks from an external source. The cochlear microphonic (CM) produced by a pulse shows a prominent ringing at 5–10 kHz in different cats; the amplitude of the N1 response exhibits a broad maximum, for constant‐amplitude pulses, at pulse widths of 20–60 μs. This variation of N1 response amplitude with pulse width is similar to that of a high‐pass filter with a cutoff frequency at the dominant frequency of the CM.