Structure of auditory nerve synapses in normal and in hearing impaired

Abstract

The neurons of the cochlear nuclei in the brainstem are the first central processors of auditory information, and they provide inputs to all the major brainstem and midbrain auditory nuclei. The synaptic connectivity pattern of neural networks in each part of the cochlear nuclear complex is an essential determinant of their role in information processing. The synapse of the auditory nerve on principal neurons in the cochlear nucleus is biophysically and anatomically specialized for the fast conduction of excitatory currents into the auditory pathway. A growing interest in the field is to determine how auditory nerve synapses adapt to fluctuations in the sound environment. In this paper, we will discuss novel findings related to the structural and molecular responses of auditory nerve synapses and enwrapping astrocytes in the normal hearing and in the hearing impaired.Support or Funding InformationNIDCD/NIH: R01DC013048; R56DC013048This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.