Methylmercury Exposure Reduces the Auditory Brainstem Response of Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Mercury contamination from mining and fossil fuel combustion causes damage to humans and animals worldwide. Mercury exposure has been implicated in mammalian hearing impairment, but its effect on avian hearing is unknown. In this study, we examined whether lifetime dietary mercury exposure affected...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 569 - 579
Main Authors Wolf, Sarah E, Swaddle, John P, Cristol, Daniel A, Buchser, William J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.08.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Animals
Auditory communication
Auditory discrimination
Birds
Brain stem
Contamination
Cysteine - analogs & derivatives
Cysteine - toxicity
Dimethylmercury
Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem - drug effects
Female
Finches
Fossil fuels
Hearing loss
Hearing Loss - chemically induced
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mercury
Methylmercury Compounds - toxicity
Neurobiology
Neurosciences
Otorhinolaryngology
Research Article
Vocalization behavior
toxicology
ABR
amplitude
ecotoxicology
latency
hearing impairment
hearing
threshold shift
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Summary:Mercury contamination from mining and fossil fuel combustion causes damage to humans and animals worldwide. Mercury exposure has been implicated in mammalian hearing impairment, but its effect on avian hearing is unknown. In this study, we examined whether lifetime dietary mercury exposure affected hearing in domestic zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) by studying their auditory brainstem responses (ABRs). Zebra finches exposed to mercury exhibited elevated hearing thresholds, decreased amplitudes, and longer latencies in the ABR, the first evidence of mercury-induced hearing impairment in birds. Birds are a more appropriate model for the human auditory spectrum than most mammals because of similarities in frequency discrimination, vocal learning, and communication behavior. When mercury is considered in combination with other anthropogenic stressors such as noise pollution and habitat alteration, the hearing impairments we document here could substantially degrade avian auditory communication in wild birds.
ISSN:1525-3961
1438-7573
DOI:10.1007/s10162-017-0619-7