Amino acid and acetylcholine chemistry in mountain beaver cochlear nucleus and comparisons to pocket gopher, other rodents, and cat.

ABSTRACT: The mountain beaver and pocket gopher are two rodents that live mostly underground in tunnel systems. Previous studies have suggested that their cochlear nucleus structure, particularly that of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), differs significantly from that of other mammals, that the hearing ability of the pocket gopher is deficient compared to that of other rodents, and that the DCN of the mountain beaver is more responsive to slow oscillations of air pressure than to sounds. We conducted some electrophysiological recordings from mountain beaver DCN and then used microchemical methods to map in mountain beaver cochlear nuclei the distributions of amino acids, including the major neurotransmitters of the brain, and enzyme activities related to the metabolism of the neurotransmitter acet

SUBMITTER: Godfrey DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6932870 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature