Hyperacusis is a debilitating hearing condition in which normal everyday sounds are perceived as exceedingly loud, annoying, aversive or even painful. The prevalence of hyperacusis approaches 10%, making it an important, but understudied medical condition. In this work, we develop functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for studying hyperacusis in a behaviorally verified rat model. Pairing animal disease models with novel methodology is extremely valuable for understanding the basic mechanisms of the disease, aiding in future prevention and treatment. We observed significant neural hyperactivity in response to sound in the brain cortex, but less in lower regions such as the brainstem. This work will also help bridge basic understanding acquired from animal models with clinical observations in human patients as fMRI is performed on both.
The work is featured on the cover of the Apr 2020 volume of Hearing Research.
Read more at Hearing Research:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037859551930365X
01 Apr 2020