Sex hormones regulate abr latency

Abstract

In an effort to characterize more completely the influence of sex hormones on auditory brainstem response (ABR) latency, we evaluated the ABRs of normal male and female subjects and women with previously diagnosed endocrinologic syndromes. We describe ABR latency results from the following subjects: five normal males, nine normally cycling females on no hormonal therapy, nine females using oral contraceptive pills, five females with premature ovarian failure (POF) undergoing cyclic estrogen-progesterone replacement therapy, and five hyperandrogenized females with polycystic ovarian disease (PCOD) treated with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, Lupron depot, to suppress ovarian steroid production. All subjects were between 23 and 40 years of age. Serum levels of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, prolactic, and gonadotropins (lutienizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone) were measured to document the hormonal status of each of the subjects at the time of the ABR evaluation. Normal cycling females and females with POF underwent ABR testing during different phases of the same cycle. Male subjects and females using birth control pills were studied four times in the same month at 1-week intervals. Females with PCOD were also studied four times; baseline and then at 2-week intervals after the initiation of Lupron depot therapy. Increased ABR wave V peak latencies were found to be associated with elevated levels of estrogen or testosterone. We have previously reported a lengthening of ABR wave V peak latencies coincident with peak estrogen levels during the female cycle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Otoacoustic Emissions as a Window onto Prenatal Development and Sexual Differentiation

“…The frequencies of some SOAEs do shift slightly as a function of the menstrual cycle, 27,28 but the effects were so small that, in our OAE experiment, we took no steps to control when in the cycle data were collected. 4,16 Because some AEP measures were known to be affected by the menstrual cycle, 29,30 we tested our normal-cycling females only during the last 10 days of their menstrual cycles, 9 when both estrogen and progesterone levels are high and when the differences between males and females are greatest. 1 Thus, an attempt was made to prevent any group differences in menstrual cycles from compromising the experimental comparisons.…”

Olfactory event-related potentials in normal human subjects: effects of age and gender

“…Hormonal influences may also contribute to the evoked potential differences between males and females. Elkind-Hirsch et al (1994) found that auditory brain-stem evoked potentials correspond to levels of estrogen or testosterone. In olfaction, Becker et al (1993) also reported evoked potential amplitudes to be larger in females than in males.…”

Steroid-Dependent Auditory Plasticity Leads to Adaptive Coupling of Sender and Receiver

“…The steroid-induced changes in temporal encoding observed here may depend on changes in the filtering properties of the hair-cell membrane and/ or the hair cell-afferent synapse (15,(28)(29)(30)(31). Similar mechanisms of auditory plasticity may also be operative in other vertebrate groups where multiunit or evoked potential studies have suggested either seasonal or steroid-related changes in audition (4,5,32,33). This includes proposals that cyclical changes in the auditory frequency sensitivity of human females at differing stages of the menstrual cycle may be dependent, at least in part, on the influences of steroid hormones (4,34).…”