High-resolution mapping of neuronal activity using the lipophilic thallium chelate complex TlDDC: protocol and validation of the method.

In neurons the rate of K(+)-uptake increases with increasing activity. K(+)-analogues like the heavy metal ion thallium (Tl(+)) can be used, therefore, as tracers for imaging neuronal activity. However, when water-soluble Tl(+)-salts are injected systemically only minute amounts of the tracer enter the brain and the Tl(+)-uptake patterns are influenced by regional differences in blood-brain barrier (BBB) K(+)-permeability.

Mobile larynx in Mongolian gazelle: Retraction of the larynx during rutting barks in male Mongolian gazelle (Procapra gutturosa Pallas, 1777).

This study provides the first evidence of pronounced temporary laryngeal descent in a bovid species. An elaborate acoustic display is prominent in male courtship behavior of polygynous Mongolian gazelle. During rut, rounding up of females is accompanied by continuous head-up barking by dominant males.

Strain-dependence of age-related cochlear hearing loss in wild and domesticated Mongolian gerbils.

The Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) is one of the animal models in auditory research that has been used in several studies on age-related hearing loss. The standard laboratory strain is domesticated as it was bred in captivity for more than 70 years. We compared properties of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in domesticated gerbils with wild-type gerbils from F6-F7 generations of a strain originating from animals trapped in Central Asia in 1995.

Early experience and domestication affect auditory discrimination learning, open field behaviour and brain size in wild Mongolian gerbils and domesticated laboratory gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus forma domestica).

The influence of early experience and strain differences on auditory discrimination learning, open field behaviour and brain size was investigated in wild-type Mongolian gerbils (strain Ugoe:MU95) raised in the wild (wild F-0) or in the laboratory (wild F-1) and in domesticated Laboratory Gerbils (LAB). Adult males were conditioned for 10 days in a shuttle box go/no-go paradigm to discriminate two frequency-modulated tones. Significant learning was established within 5 days in wild F-0 and within 3 days in wild F-1 and LAB.

Predicting mutational change in the speaking voice of boys.

The authors investigated whether acoustic speaking voice analyses can be used to predict the beginning of mutation in 21 male members of a professional boys' choir. Over a period of 3 years before mutation, children were examined every 3 months by ear, nose, and throat (ENT) and phoniatric specialists. At the same time, the voice was evaluated acoustically using analysis features of the Goettingen Hoarseness Diagram (GHD).

Assessment of irregular voices after total and laser surgical partial laryngectomy.

Objectives: To assess the merits of computer-aided voice analysis procedures for very irregular voices of patients after total and laser surgical partial laryngectomy, and to characterize qualitative differences in speech and voice function between these 2 groups of patients.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: University hospital in Göttingen, Germany

Patients: Twenty-nine patients with advanced laryngeal carcinomas (T3-T4; according to the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer, TNM staging system, stages III-IVa) were examined: 18 patients with tracheoesophageal speech (voice prosthesis) after total laryngectomy and 11 patients who underwent partial transoral resection of the larynx (by means of laser microsurgery without surgical voice rehabilitation).

Low microsatellite variation in laboratory gerbrils.

The Mongolian gerbil has become a model organism of increasing importance for the understanding of aging, epilepsy, the process of domestication or sociobiological questions. We report the development and characterization of the first nine polymorphic dinucleotide repeat loci in this species. Average observed heterozygosity and allele number of laboratory animals measured 0.

Domestication differentially affects cochlear nucleus subdivisions in the gerbil.

We analyzed the effects of domestication on the subdivisions of the cochlear nucleus in the gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) by comparing their volumes and rostrocaudal extents in laboratory gerbils and in age-matched F1 offspring of gerbils caught in the wild. In addition, soma size was systematically analyzed in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of both groups. Total cochlear nucleus volume and rostrocaudal extent were not significantly different between groups either for young (postnatal day 9) animals before the onset of hearing or for young 4-month-old animals.

Early unilateral auditory deprivation increases 2-deoxyglucose uptake in contralateral auditory cortex of juvenile Mongolian gerbils.

The effects of early onset, unilateral conductive hearing loss on tone-induced 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) uptake in the auditory cortex of juvenile Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) were studied. Atresia of the left ear canal was induced at postnatal day 9 (P9) to achieve reversible auditory deprivation prior to onset of hearing (around P12). Atresia either persisted (ATR, n=4) or the canal was opened 15 min before the 2-DG experiments (RE, n=4) at P27.