Long-Term Partial Eighth Nerve Section in Cats: Effect on Auditory Discrimination

Five cats were trained to discriminate auditory tonal patterns, following which a partial section of the eighth nerve was made involving 50% of the auditory fibers. After section the animals maintained their pure-tone thresholds and retained the response to tonal patterns. The present experiment suggests that in peripheral disorders of hearing with normal or near normal pure-tone audiograms and poor discrimination, the discrepancy does not arise from reduced input of information to the central nervous system as a result of reduced auditory fibers.