Browsing by Author "Plotz, K."

The development of central auditory functions in cochlear implant (CI) patients was studied over six months of rehabilitation. Examinations were performed beginning with the first week after processor calibration, and in monthly follow-up sessions thereafter. The subjects were given a simple auditory perception task (detection of a 400 Hz and a 1450 Hz tone), as well as an oddball-paradigm (detection of one of the tones as a rare deviant). Auditory evoked potentials, reaction time and errors were recorded. Results from five patients, two postlingually deaf and three prelingually deaf CI recipients are shown. Generally, in the auditory evoked potentials of patients a shortening of N100 latency towards those of subjects with normal hearing was seen from month to month. However, in the prelingually deaf patients this effect was weaker and more variable over time. Three CI recipients showed a P300 component in the oddball-paradigm in correlation with their performance. Two prelingually deaf patients failed to show a P300 in the oddball-paradigm. For both components, the N100 and the P300 we found a larger spreading over the skull in the patients compared to a normal hearing person. The results show that from the very first days after initial processor fitting prelingually and postlingually deaf CI recipients may show cortical correlates of stimulus processing and discrimination. For some components of the auditory evoked potentials an initial temporal change but a maintained larger spreading over the skull was seen.

A survey of adult male Mongolian gerbils, Meriones unguiculatus (Milne-Edwards, 1867), either trapped during an expedition in Mongolia near 47 degreesN and 105,5 degreesE in June 1995 (WILD) or obtained from a laboratory strain bred in captivity since 1935 (LAB), revealed significant morphological and behavioural differences, which are likely a result of domestication in the laboratory strain. Mean body length (125.4 mm), tail length (95.5 mm) and body weight (53.6 g) was lower in WILD, although no other external characteristics were obviously different. Related allometrically to net carcass weight, organ weights were significantly lower (p < 0.01) in LAB (brain - 17.6%, eyes - 26.0%, heart - 22.3%, lungs - 43.3%). Seizures frequently seen in LAB were absent in WILD trapped (n = 167) or subsequently housed in Germany (n = 8 1), and rare in their offspring. Mean litter size was greater in LAB (n = 5.5) than in WILD bred in the laboratory (n = 4.4). The WILD breeding strain was named Ugoe:MU95. A genetic bottleneck (n = 9) that occurred in 1954 and remarkably smaller brains in LAB indicate that the laboratory strain has become domesticated and should be designated as "Laboratory gerbils" (M. unguiculatus forma domestica) to signify this new case of domestication among rodents.