RESUMEN

How we move our bodies affects how we perceive sound. For instance, head movements help us to better localize the source of a sound and to compensate for asymmetric hearing loss. However, many auditory experiments are designed to restrict head and body movements. To study the role of movement in hearing, we developed a behavioral task called sound-seeking that rewarded freely moving mice for tracking down an ongoing sound source. Over the course of learning, mice more efficiently navigated to the sound. Next, we asked how sound-seeking was affected by hearing loss induced by surgical removal of the malleus from the middle ear. After bilateral hearing loss sound-seeking performance drastically declined and did not recover. In striking contrast, after unilateral hearing loss mice were only transiently impaired and then recovered their sound-seek ability over about a week. Throughout recovery, unilateral mice increasingly relied on a movement strategy of sequentially checking potential locations for the sound source. In contrast, the startle reflex (an innate auditory behavior) was preserved after unilateral hearing loss and abolished by bilateral hearing loss without recovery over time. In sum, mice compensate with body movement for permanent unilateral damage to the peripheral auditory system. Looking forward, this paradigm provides an opportunity to examine how movement enhances perception and enables resilient adaptation to sensory disorders.

Asunto(s)

Localización de Sonidos , Animales , Ratones , Localización de Sonidos/fisiología , Reflejo de Sobresalto/fisiología , Pérdida Auditiva/fisiopatología , Masculino , Estimulación Acústica , Ratones Endogámicos C57BL , Conducta Animal , Sonido , Femenino

RESUMEN

How we move our bodies affects how we perceive sound. For instance, we can explore an environment to seek out the source of a sound and we can use head movements to compensate for hearing loss. How we do this is not well understood because many auditory experiments are designed to limit head and body movements. To study the role of movement in hearing, we developed a behavioral task called sound-seeking that rewarded mice for tracking down an ongoing sound source. Over the course of learning, mice more efficiently navigated to the sound. We then asked how auditory behavior was affected by hearing loss induced by surgical removal of the malleus from the middle ear. An innate behavior, the auditory startle response, was abolished by bilateral hearing loss and unaffected by unilateral hearing loss. Similarly, performance on the sound-seeking task drastically declined after bilateral hearing loss and did not recover. In striking contrast, mice with unilateral hearing loss were only transiently impaired on sound-seeking; over a recovery period of about a week, they regained high levels of performance, increasingly reliant on a different spatial sampling strategy. Thus, even in the face of permanent unilateral damage to the peripheral auditory system, mice recover their ability to perform a naturalistic sound-seeking task. This paradigm provides an opportunity to examine how body movement enables better hearing and resilient adaptation to sensory deprivation.