Aberrant tonotopic organization in the inner ear damaged by kanamycin

Abstract

Spiral ganglion cell recordings were obtained from normal and kanamycin‐damaged guinea pig cochleas. Results show that kanamycin poisoning, which causes loss of outer hair cells, leads to a loss of sharp, sensitive tuning and, in addition, a shift to lower frequencies in the tuning curves from a damaged region. The normal tonoptic pattern of organization is therefore greatly disrupted in the damaged cochleas.