Electrical stimulation of the cochlear nerve in deafness mice.

The deafness mouse mutant provides a useful animal model for studying the central consequences of complete auditory deprivation during development. The object of this study was to record inferior colliculus-evoked potentials in mutant and control mice, using short electrical pulses to stimulate either the whole cochlea or the cochlear nerve directly. In both experiments, evoked potentials were readily recorded in the mutant and control mice, indicating that some central connections are functional, even though the auditory pathway has received no stimulus-related input throughout development. The results are relevant to the clinical problem of restoring auditory function in the profoundly deaf using peripheral electrical stimulation.