Plastic changes in ipsi-contralateral differences of auditory cortex and inferior colliculus evoked potentials after injury to one ear in the adult guinea pig

In normal adult guinea pigs, evoked potentials recorded at the ipsilateral auditory cortex to monaural high-frequency acoustic stimuli present higher thresholds and lower amplitudes than at the contralateral cortex; in the inferior colliculus, such ipsi-contralateral differences (ICDs) are smaller than in the auditory cortex. Changes in the ICDs were studied after opposite ear injury. Following quasi-complete hair cell destruction induced by sisomicin injection into the contralateral inner car, threshold ICDs almost disappeared after about two to six days and ipsilateral amplitudes progressively increased in two to three weeks. The occurrence of ICDs at higher auditory centers revealed in this study, indicates peculiar processing of high frequency stimuli in normal guinea pigs. The alteration of ICDs after opposite ear impairment provides a new possibility to study the auditory plasticity in adult animals.