Noise-induced neural facilitation in the brain cortices

✍ Scribed by Shao Dianhua; Lin Huaying; Liang Zhi'an

• Book ID: 102635545
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 388 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-682X
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-682x(88)90022-9

✦ Synopsis

Exposure to noise of proper dosages may call forth in animals facilitation of the brain cortex, activity manifesting as drastic amplitude augmentation of the evoked potentials and marked lowering of response thresholds to sound frequeno' modulation. These are contradictory to the general rule of noise hazard as an overall drop of auditory functions. The exposure noises may be of various kinds and the facilitating dosages are close to or slightly exceed the safety margin. This noise-inducedneural facilitation is a cortical phenomenon because all subcortical structures show no parallel post-exposure changes. Augmentation of cortical responses can be observed in various species of animals and is not auditory-specific, since responses evoked by other nonacoustic stimuli are usually al~'o augmented. Post-exposure lowering of frequency discriminating thresholds, together with response augmentation, suggests some functional signoqcance of such facilitation. Possible mechanisms are discussed.