# HEARING LOSS AND AGING IN THE AUDITORY SYSTEM

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS · 1993 · $130,442

## Abstract

This study will investigate progressive hearing loss and the correlated
cellular changes in the auditory pathway with advancing age.  The work will
be complementary to an ongoing, funded NIH Program Project based in the
Principal Investigator's department.  This Program Project is devoted to
the analysis of a variety of neural changes with age in a well-defined
population of aging rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).  The presently
proposed research program will utilize the Program Project animals to carry
out correlated functional (evoked potential) and structural (fight and
electron microscopic) studies of the aging monkey auditory system.  Of all
available animal models of human auditory decline with age (presbyacusis),
the rhesus monkey provides the most apt model, by virtue of its lifespan,
functional and structural similarity to the human auditory system, and what
is known of its auditory aging.  The present opportunity to study auditory
aging in this monkey population is an unparalleled one, and is not likely
to be available again in the foreseeable future.

Tone-evoked brainstem auditory potentials will be studied in each animal,
immediately prior to sacrifice by the Program Project, in order to assess
hearing status.  Following sacrifice, detailed morphological studies will
be carried out on the cell population's within the superior olivary
complex, inferior colliculus, and auditory cortex; in addition, the losses
of receptor cells of the cochlea and spiral ganglion cells will be
evaluated.  Using light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry, as
well as conventional cytomorphological techniques, studies will aim to shed
light on human presbyacusis by analyzing peripheral and central cell loss,
the genesis and subsequent tempo and severity of cellular degeneration, and
declines with age in immunogenicity (using, e.g., calcium binding protein,
cytoskeletal, and GABA antibodies).  Almost all of the analyses will
represent the first such studies of presbyacutic changes in this important
animal model.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3120167
- **Project number:** 5R01AG008505-02
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
- **SAM.gov UEI:** FBYMGMHW4X95
- **Principal Investigator:** MARTIN L FELDMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $130,442
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1992-06-01 → 1996-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3120167

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3120167, HEARING LOSS AND AGING IN THE AUDITORY SYSTEM (5R01AG008505-02). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3120167. Licensed CC0.

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