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Calcium action potentials in hair cells pattern auditory neuron activity before hearing onset

Nature Neuroscience volume 13, pages 1050–1052 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

We found rat central auditory neurons to fire action potentials in a precise sequence of mini-bursts before the age of hearing onset. This stereotyped pattern was initiated by hair cells in the cochlea, which trigger brief bursts of action potentials in auditory neurons each time they fire a Ca2+ spike. By generating theta-like activity, hair cells may limit the influence of synaptic depression in developing auditory circuits and promote consolidation of synapses.

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Figure 1: SGNs fire patterned action potential bursts during the prehearing period.
Figure 2: IHC Ca2+ spikes initiate action potential mini-bursts in SGNs before hearing onset.
Figure 3: MNTB neurons fire patterned action potential bursts during the prehearing period.

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Change history

  • 15 August 2010

    In the version of this article initially published online, the first sentence of the Author Contributions statement was incorrect. The first sentence should read “N.X.T. performed the in vitro IHC and SGN recordings and the in vivo iCIC recordings.” The error has been corrected for the print, PDF and HTML versions of this article.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the US National Center for Research Resources (G12-RR03060) to A.R.-C., the European Union (EUSynapse, LSHM-CT-2005–019055), Heinsius Houbolt fund and SenterNovem (The Netherlands, Neuro-Bsik, BSIK 03053) to J.G.G.B., and the US National Institutes of Health (DC008860 and DC009464) to D.E.B.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Nicolas X Tritsch & Adrián Rodríguez-Contreras

    Present address: Present addresses: Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (N.X.T.); Department of Biology, City College of New York, New York, New York, USA (A.R.-C.).,

  2. Nicolas X Tritsch and Adrián Rodríguez-Contreras: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Nicolas X Tritsch, Han Chin Wang & Dwight E Bergles

  2. Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Adrián Rodríguez-Contreras, Tom T H Crins & J Gerard G Borst

  3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Tom T H Crins

  4. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Dwight E Bergles

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  1. Nicolas X Tritsch
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Contributions

N.X.T. performed the in vitro IHC and SGN recordings and the in vivo CIC recordings. A.R.-C. and T.T.H.C. performed the in vivo MNTB recordings. H.C.W. provided technical assistance and performed some in vivo CIC recordings. N.X.T., A.R.-C., J.G.G.B. and D.E.B. designed the experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to J Gerard G Borst or Dwight E Bergles.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Figures 1–8, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Discussion (PDF 2110 kb)

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Tritsch, N., Rodríguez-Contreras, A., Crins, T. et al. Calcium action potentials in hair cells pattern auditory neuron activity before hearing onset. Nat Neurosci 13, 1050–1052 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2604

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