Presbycusis is a progressive hearing impairment associated with aging, characterized by hearing loss and a degeneration of cochlear structures. The mouse has been a useful model of presbycusis, as it displays an accelerated age-related peripheral hearing loss. The purpose of this study is compared with aging and auditory evoked potentials in the mouse. Method:Adult male ICR mice 7, 10, 17, 23 and 27 weeks were used in this study. In order to assess age-related hearing loss (AHL), we evaluated auditory brainstem response (ABR) and auditory middle latency response (AMLR) for the evaluation of sensorineural function in peripheral auditory nerve. Results:Hearing thresholds was significantly increased 17, 23 and 27 weeks after birthing comparing with 7 weeks in the mouse. Pa latency of AMLR was no difference for 6 weeks from 23 weeks group, Absolute latency of wave IV and interpeak
latency of wave I-IV were significantly delayed for 6 weeks from 23 weeks group. The result suggests that significant changes of auditory evoked potentials from 17 weeks have taken place, age-related hearing loss (AHL) could be evaluated by the shift of hearing threshold and the increasing of ABR latency in the mouse.
KEY WORDS:Aging·Mouse model·Auditory evoked potential.