The auditory pathway of the epileptic waltzing mouse. II. Partially deaf mice A grant from the Alfonso Morton Clover Scholarship and Research Fund to the Laboratory of Comparative Neurology made possible the preparation of the material for microscopic study. Grant MH 375 from the National Institute of Health, Public Health Service, to Dr. Lee R. Dice aided the testing of the hearing range of the abnormal mice.

Abstract

This study deals with degeneration occurring in the auditory pathway of the partially deaf epileptic waltzing mouse. Cellular changes include loss of Nissl material and swelling of the neurons. The fibers lose their myelin sheaths and ultimately disappear. These changes occur gradually and throughout the system, so that the animals slowly lose their hearing arid finally become deaf. Tests given to three of the four animals reported here show that the high tones are most affected, but the low tones are lost to a lesser extent. The specific locations of degenerative changes in the acoustic centers are described and related, as far as possible, to the tonotopic pattern in the auditory system as reported in the literature. This comparison brings out a caudorostral relationship between the medial geniculate and the primary auditory cortex.