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Tone-Evoked Acoustic Change Complex (ACC) Recorded in a Sedated Animal Model

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Abstract

The acoustic change complex (ACC) is a scalp-recorded cortical evoked potential complex generated in response to changes (e.g., frequency, amplitude) in an auditory stimulus. The ACC has been well studied in humans, but to our knowledge, no animal model has been evaluated. In particular, it was not known whether the ACC could be recorded under the conditions of sedation that likely would be necessary for recordings from animals. For that reason, we tested the feasibility of recording ACC from sedated cats in response to changes of frequency and amplitude of pure-tone stimuli. Cats were sedated with ketamine and acepromazine, and subdermal needle electrodes were used to record electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. Tones were presented from a small loudspeaker located near the right ear. Continuous tones alternated at 500-ms intervals between two frequencies or two levels. Neurometric functions were created by recording neural response amplitudes while systematically varying the magnitude of steps in frequency centered in octave frequency around 2, 4, 8, and 16 kHz, all at 75 dB SPL, or in decibel level around 75 dB SPL tested at 4 and 8 kHz. The ACC could be recorded readily under this ketamine/azepromazine sedation. In contrast, ACC could not be recorded reliably under any level of isoflurane anesthesia that was tested. The minimum frequency (expressed as Weber fractions (df/f)) or level steps (expressed in dB) needed to elicit ACC fell in the range of previous thresholds reported in animal psychophysical tests of discrimination. The success in recording ACC in sedated animals suggests that the ACC will be a useful tool for evaluation of other aspects of auditory acuity in normal hearing and, presumably, in electrical cochlear stimulation, especially for novel stimulation modes that are not yet feasible in humans.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders grants R01 DC000420 (to JCM) and T32 DC010775 (to AP). We thank Elizabeth A. McGuire and Zekiye Onsan for their technical and administrative assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697-5310, USA

    Alessandro Presacco & John C. Middlebrooks

  2. Center for Hearing Research, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Alessandro Presacco & John C. Middlebrooks

  3. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    John C. Middlebrooks

  4. Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    John C. Middlebrooks

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    John C. Middlebrooks

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  1. Alessandro Presacco
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Correspondence to Alessandro Presacco.

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Presacco, A., Middlebrooks, J.C. Tone-Evoked Acoustic Change Complex (ACC) Recorded in a Sedated Animal Model. JARO 19, 451–466 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-018-0673-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-018-0673-9

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