IUBio

lack of stimulation and neuron death

K C Cheng kccheng at postoffice.idirect.com
Thu Nov 12 20:59:53 EST 1998


ken collins wrote:
I'll not reply directly to your symptoms, but, yes, central neurons die
due
to lack of stimulation. Neural trophy is activation-dependent... if it
were
not, experience would "make no difference", and "Learning" would be
"impossible". We'd all be automatons (=completely=, not "almost", as has
been the case over the course of the millenia). ken collins

crowley9 at ix.netcom.com wrote:

> Hi there.  I had a head injury about 5 weeks ago and lost about 75% to
> 80% hearing in my right ear.  The ENT doc told me the hearing loss was
> conductive hearing loss instead of hearing loss caused by damage to the=

> nervous system.  He said that it would not be a big deal to have surger=
y
> and fix the ossicle bones (where he thinks the problem is).  I am
> leaning towards waiting about a year or so to see if the problem
> resolves itself (based on info obtained from someone else under similar=

> circumstances and from a book on hearing loss) instead of going under
> the knife now.  What I'd like to know is will waiting a year or so hurt=

> the nerve cells since the amount of hearing stimulation they are gettin=
g
> in that ear is quite low ("use it or lose it")?  Or should I get the
> bones fixed now so that the nerve cells get lots more stimulation and
> thus not die in a year or so?  When I pick up the phone and listen to
> the dial tone in the bad ear, I can barely hear it (loudness intensity
> is about 20% of the other ear) so there is a little bit reaching the
> nerves in that ear but not much.  Anyway *any* input at all on this
> would really be appreciated.  Thanks so much!
>
> Bill

Re above:
Ken Collins is of course quite right.  But if he keeps himself otherwise
mentally active so that his auditory cortical neurons would be
stimulated by other activities than simple hearing itself, perhaps there
would be no central neuron atrophy.
Also, in the case of hearing, it is usual for aging people to lose their
high reguqnecy discrimination due to loss of those hair cells on those
portions of the inner ear basilar membrane resonating to high
frequencies.  Therefore, in his case, for one ear to rest for a year
would not be a loss.
-- =

kccheng =BEG=ABa=B8s
http://www.easyhosting.com/~kccheng



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