Auditory sensitivity in mice: Peromyscus and Mus musculus

Auditory evoked potentials from the posterior colliculus were used to measure auditory threshold in Peromyscus leucopus, P. boylii, feral Mus musculus and strain BALB/cJ and DBA/2J laboratory mice and showed high frequency sensitivity, which probably explains their loss of audiogenic seizure susceptibility with age.

Abstract

Auditory evoked potentials from the posterior colliculus were used to measure auditory threshold in Peromyscus leucopus, P. boylii, feral Mus musculus and strain BALB/cJ and DBA/2J laboratory mice. Moderate Nembutal anaesthesia had no consistent effect on the shape, amplitude, latency or threshold of the evoked potentials. Peromyscus boylii and young P. leucopus appear to have a high frequency sensitivity similar to that of the bat Myotis lucifugus up to about 70 kHz. The feral Mus musculus were more sensitive to higher frequencies than any of the laboratory mice tested, having lowest thresholds at about 20 kHz. The high frequency sensitivity of strain DBA/2J mice declines rapidly with age, which probably explains their loss of audiogenic seizure susceptibility with age. Mice of strain BALB/cJ were most sensitive to frequencies of about 12 kHz. Their high freuency sensitivity tends to decline with age, but not as rapidly or consistently as in strain DBA/2J mice. The high incidence of sensory deficits in laboratory mice, and the difficulty of detecting them, can confound the results of behavioural studies on inbred laboratory mouse strains.