Physiological and anatomical investigation of the auditory brainstem in the Fat-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata)
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Neuroscience, Zoology
- Keywords
- superior olivary nuclei, cochlear nucleus, marsupial, hearing, auditory brainstem response
- Copyright
- © 2019 Garrett et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2019. Physiological and anatomical investigation of the auditory brainstem in the Fat-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) PeerJ Preprints 7:e27783v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27783v1
Abstract
The fat-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) is a small (10-20g) native marsupial endemic to the south west of Western Australia. Currently little is known about the auditory capabilities of the dunnart, and of marsupials in general. Consequently, this study sought to investigate several electrophysiological and anatomical properties of the dunnart auditory system. Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) were recorded to brief (5ms) tone pips at a range of frequencies (4-47.5 kHz) and intensities to determine auditory brainstem thresholds. The dunnart ABR displayed multiple distinct peaks at all test frequencies, similar to other mammalian species. ABR showed the dunnart is most sensitive to higher frequencies increasing up to 47.5 kHz. Morphological observations (Nissl stain) revealed that the auditory structures thought to contribute to the first peaks of the ABR were all distinguishable in the dunnart. Structures identified include the dorsal and ventral subdivisions of the cochlear nucleus, including a cochlear nerve root nucleus as well as several distinct nuclei in the superior olivary complex, such as the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body, lateral superior olive and medial superior olive. This study is the first to show functional and anatomical aspects of the lower part of the auditory system in the Fat-tailed Dunnart.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Raw ABR data files used to generate Figures 1 and 2
The data contained in this file represent the individual ABR responses for each fat-tailed dunnart. Each dunnart was tested at multiple frequencies and sound-intensities which are also shown at the top of each column.