IMPLICATIONS OF NEUROTROPHIN SUPPORTED AUDITORY NEURON SURVIVAL FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE TONOTOPIC ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL AUDITORY PATHWAY

Recent experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of members of t he neurotrophin family of growth factors in supporting the survival of primary auditory neurons following ototoxic trauma. In this report, w e examined the implications of these results in light of current knowl edge about activity dependent central nervous system reorganization. W e suggest that the use of trophic factors in conjunction with patterne d stimulation of afferent nerve fibers could preserve the majority of the tonotopic arrangement of the central pathway. We propose experimen ts to test the effects of NT-3 induced neuron survival on the organiza tion of primary auditory cortex.