OSCR

Auditory perception and neural representation of temporal features are altered by age but not by cochlear synaptopathy.

Overview

Authors: Friederike Steenken1,2,3, Rainer Beutelmann1,2,3, Henning Oetjen1,2,3, Christine Köppl1,2,3, Georg M Klump1,2,3
ORCID iDs: Rainer Beutelmann, Christine Köppl, Georg M Klump
  1. Cluster of Excellence 'Hearing4all,' Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  2. Research Centre Neurosensory Science, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  3. Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Health Science, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
Institutions: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (Germany); Hearing4all (Germany)
Journal: eLife, volume 14, article RP102890
Dates: published online 5 May 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.7554/elife.102890 · PMID 42084044 · PMCID PMC13143274 · OpenAlex W4406697043
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: data only
Categories: other (organism), cognitive (subfield)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Statistics, Connectivity, Evoked potentials, Single-unit activity, calcium imaging
Keywords: Other
MeSH: Aging*, Auditory Perception*, Cochlea*, Synapses*, Acoustic Stimulation, Animals, Cochlear Nerve, Gerbillinae (* major topic)
Topic: Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics (Sensory Systems, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC 1077/1 "Hearing4all" (Project ID 390895286), PP 1608)
Citations: cited by 1 paper (Europe PMC); 96 references in the paper

Abstract

Age-related hearing loss is a complex phenomenon. The earliest-onset degenerative event is the gradual loss of neural connections between the cochlea and auditory brainstem. To probe for perceptual deficits that might arise from this loss, cochlear synaptopathy was induced pharmacologically in young-adult gerbils, which were then tested in a challenging listening task for the perception of temporal fine structure. Treated gerbils behaved no differently than normal-hearing, young-adult animals. In contrast, old gerbils, which typically express many cochlear and central-neural pathologies, showed impaired perception. To probe for the underlying mechanisms, single-unit responses were obtained from the auditory nerve to the same test stimuli. Responses from old gerbils showed no impairment in temporal locking to the stimulus fine structure. However, responses were significantly more driven by slower temporal fluctuations of the stimulus envelope, suggesting that the central auditory system may be unable to extract the relevant information for discrimination from such altered inputs.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

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Data

Datasets cited

Data availability

The data that are presented in the figures and were statistically analyzed are uploaded to a Zenodo repository (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15546625). We have deposited the software package developed by the coauthor Rainer Beutelmann in GitHub (https://github.com/rainbeu/abr-software, copy archived at Beutelmann, 2026).

The following dataset was generated:

Klump GM, Beutelmann R. 2025. Original raw data files for Elife publication Auditory perception and neural representation of temporal features are altered by age but not by cochlear synaptopathy. Zenodo.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 5 authors, 1 keyword, 8 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 92 references.

Cite

This paper

Steenken, F., Beutelmann, R., Oetjen, H., Köppl, C., & Klump, G. M. (2026). Auditory perception and neural representation of temporal features are altered by age but not by cochlear synaptopathy. eLife, 14, RP102890. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.102890

BibTeX

@article{steenken2026auditory,
author = {Steenken, Friederike and Beutelmann, Rainer and Oetjen, Henning and Köppl, Christine and Klump, Georg M},
title = {{Auditory perception and neural representation of temporal features are altered by age but not by cochlear synaptopathy}},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = may,
volume = {14},
pages = {RP102890},
publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd},
issn = {2050-084X},
doi = {10.7554/elife.102890},
url = {https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.102890},
pmid = {42084044},
pmcid = {PMC13143274}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Steenken, Friederike
AU - Beutelmann, Rainer
AU - Oetjen, Henning
AU - Köppl, Christine
AU - Klump, Georg M
TI - Auditory perception and neural representation of temporal features are altered by age but not by cochlear synaptopathy
T2 - eLife
J2 - eLife
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/05
VL - 14
SP - RP102890
SN - 2050-084X
PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
DO - 10.7554/elife.102890
UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.102890
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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