Far-field brainstem responses evoked by vestibular and auditory stimuli exhibit increases in interpeak latency as brain temperature is decreased.

The effect of decreasing brain temperature upon the transmission of neural signals along the brainstem auditory pathway has been well documented in cats and mice. The increase in the absolute and interpeak latencies of components of the brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) has indicated that a progressive slowing occurs along the pathway as the signals ascend toward higher brainstem areas. Therefore to fully describe BAERs, both peak latencies and temperature are measured, especially in anesthetized preparations when brain temperature can be labile. In comparison to the numerous studies on the auditory system there are few studies that relate far-field responses evoked by angular acceleration to the vestibular system. Moreover the temperature dependence of such responses has apparently not been investigated. In this study we performed experiments designed to examine whether interpeak latencies of the BAER in rats depended upon temperature. This led to experiments designed to examine whether interpeak latencies of responses evoked by an angular acceleration show a dependence on temperature.