Noise impairment in the guinea pig. I. Changes in electrical evoked activity along the auditory pathway.

Changes in the cochlear microphonics (CM), auditory nerve action potential (AP), and evoked responses from the inferior colliculus (IC-ER) and auditory cortex (AC-ER) of the guinea pig were assessed after exposure to white noise of 115 dB for 30 min. Both continuous and intermittent (200 ms noise and 200 ms pause) exposures were used. In comparison with the pre-exposure level, CM isopotential curves were shifted by 1.1 +/- 0.5 dB (means +/- S.E.) on the average in the range of 0.5-8 kHz (recorded at the round window). The amplitude-intensity function of the click-evoked auditory nerve action potential decreased by 8.4 +/- 1.2 dB, that of the inferior colliculus evoked response by 20.9 +/- 3.7 dB, and the amplitude-intensity function of the auditory cortex evoked potential decreased by 6.2 +/- 4.7 dB. A similar reduction in the amplitude was found after both continuous and intermittent noise exposure. In contrast to the decrease in amplitudes of evoked potentials, the latency-intensity functions of the individual waves of potentials evoked along the auditory pathway did not change when compared at the same click intensity before and after the exposure. The results suggest that individual auditory nuclei are impaired by the noise to different extents and that the impairment does not increase linearly up to the auditory cortex.