Dexamethasone's effect in the retrocochlear auditory centers of a noise-induced hearing loss mouse model.

Objective: Examine prophylactic effects of dexamethasone (Dex) in retrocochlear auditory centers in a noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) mouse model.

Study Design: Prospective animal study.

Setting: Academic research center.

Connexin 43 and hearing: possible implications for retrocochlear auditory processing.

Objectives/hypothesis: To examine the relationship between hearing and connexin 43, a dominant gap junctional protein in the central nervous system.

Study Design: Original research.

Methods: Connexin 43 heterozygous mice are used to assess its mutational effect on hearing.

Specific targeting of retrocochlear auditory pathway for optimal pharmacotherapy delivery using a mouse model.

Hypothesis: Optimal pharmacotherapy entails a safe delivery method that specifically targets auditory structure(s) of interest. A retrocochlear neuronal tracer may enable comparison of various pharmacotherapy delivery methods and localization of the drug along the auditory pathway.

Background: Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) can involve cochlear hair cell or neural cell death, which often is accompanied by secondary degeneration of central auditory neurons.

Reentrant spiral waves of spreading depression cause macular degeneration in hypoglycemic chicken retina.

Spreading depression (SD), a slow diffusion-mediated self-sustained wave of depolarization that severely disrupts neuronal function, has been implicated as a cause of cellular injury in a number of central nervous system pathologies, including blind spots in the retina. Here we show that in the hypoglycemic chicken retina, spontaneous episodes of SD can occur, resulting in irreversible punctate lesions in the macula, the region of highest visual acuity in the central region of the retina. These lesions in turn can act as sites of origin for secondary self-sustained reentrant spiral waves of SD that progressively enlarge the lesions.

Postmortem assessment of thalamic nuclear volumes in subjects with schizophrenia.

Objective: The authors assessed schizophrenia-associated changes in volume and neuronal number in the mediodorsal nucleus and the pulvinar regions of the thalamus.

Method: Right-hemisphere thalami obtained at autopsy from 14 schizophrenic and eight comparison subjects were examined. Computer-assisted morphometric techniques were used to determine volumes for the mediodorsal nucleus, pulvinar, and the anterior and centromedian nuclei as well as the parvocellular, magnocellular, and caudodorsal subdivisions of the mediodorsal nucleus.