Single-neuron labeling and chronic cochlear pathology. III. Stereocilia damage and alterations of threshold tuning curves.

Tuning curves were obtained from 100 to 150 auditory-nerve fibers spanning the range of characteristic frequencies (CFs) in each of eight cases of permanent noise-induced and three cases of permanent kanamycin-induced threshold shift. In each ear, from one to six neurons were intracellularly labeled with horseradish peroxidase. Locating the labeled terminals in plastic-embedded surface preparations of the cochlea enabled us to accurately correlate particular tuning-curve abnormalities with the condition of the sensory cells generating them. The correlations between structural and functional changes suggest that a normal tuning-curve tip requires that the stereocilia on both the IHCs and OHCs (especially those from the first row) be normal. Selective damage to the OHCs is associated with elevation of the tips and hypersensitivity of the tuning-curve tails. This tuning-curve pattern also originates from cochlear regions at the basal border of hair cell lesions where the local hair cells (and their stereocilia) appear completely normal at the light-microscopic level. Total destruction of the OHCs in a region in which the IHCs appear normal (as can happen in cases of kanamycin poisoning) is associated with bowl-shaped tuning curves which appear to lack a tip. Combined damage to the IHCs and OHCs (as typically happens in cases of acoustic trauma) is invariably associated with elevation of both tips and tails on the tuning curve. A framework for the interpretation of the results is suggested in which the activity of the OHCs is transmitted via the tectorial membrane to the tall row of stereocilia on the IHCs.