The effects of noise exposures on complex sound perception by laboratory mice

Abstract

Using laboratory mice as models for humans with age-related or noise-induced hearing loss has been a widely accepted practice for many years. However, physiological and reflex-based methodologies are often limited in the stimuli that can be used to measure auditory processing. Behavioral tasks are informative for understanding acuity for ecologically relevant and naturalistic sounds and are more closely matched to measurements of auditory acuity by humans reporting hearing difficulties. Our laboratory has extended the utility of the aging mouse model by (1) assessing hearing across the lifespan using behavioral procedures in awake and trained mice, (2) determining how aging, blasts, and noise exposures affect hearing in mice, and (3) measuring the detection, discrimination, and categorization of complex sounds by mice including ultrasonic vocalizations. We have found differences in auditory acuity of laboratory mice across age, sex, stimulus type, noise exposure, traumatic blasts, and measurement techniques, highlighting the importance of studying complex sound perception in animal models using behavioral approaches. [Work supported by R01-DC012302 and R01-DC016641.]