We studied the case of a 48-year-old woman who had resection of a pineal body tumor in terms of postoperative audiological function. Postoperative magnetic resonance imaging disclosed partial inferior colliculi destruction and medial geniculate body degeneration. A pure tone audiogram revealed only moderate sensorineural hearing loss, but her speech perception was totally impaired. The binaural sound localization function was also impaired. The auditory brain stem response (ABR) showed waves I, III, and V to have normal latencies. The amplitude of wave III was larger than that of wave V. These results support the view that the waves of the ABR are elicited from multiple sources in the auditory brain stem nuclei and tracts. This case suggests a substantial role for the inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body in the processing of speech perception and sound localization.
MeyerBKralTZentnerJ. Pure word deafness after resection of a tectal plate glioma with preservation of wave V of brain stem auditory evoked potentials. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry1996; 61: 423–4.
4.
KuwadaSBatraRYinTCOliverDLHaberlyLBStanfordTR. Intracellular recordings in response to monaural and binaural stimulation of neurons in the inferior colliculus of the cat. J Neurosci1997; 17: 7565–81.
5.
SiebenmannF. Über die zentrale Hörbahn u. über ihre Schädigung durch Geschewülste des Mittenhilmus specille der Vierhügelgegend u. der Haube. Z Ohrenheilkd1896; 29: 28–91.
6.
KirikaeISatouT. A case of pinealoma with midbrain deafness. J Otolaryngol Jpn1957; 60: 1357–62.
7.
HoweJRMillorCA. Midbrain deafness following head injury. Neurology1975; 25: 286–9.
8.
JaniNNLaurenoRMarkASBrewerCC. Deafness after bilateral midbrain contusion: A correlation of magnetic resonance imaging with auditory brain stem evoked responses. Neurosurgery1991; 29: 106–8.
9.
MissoriPDeifiniRCantoreG. Tinnitus and hearing loss in pineal region tumors. Acta Neurochir (Wien)1995; 135: 154–8.
10.
PontonCWMooreJKEggermontJJ. Auditory brain stem response generation by parallel pathways: Differential maturation of axonal conduction time and synaptic transmission. Ear Hear1996; 17: 402–10.
11.
HinmanCLBuchwaldJS. Depth evoked potential and single unit correlates of vertex midlatency auditory evoked responses. Brain Res1983; 264: 57–67.
12.
BognarLFischerCTurjmanF. Tectal plate gliomas. Part III: Apparent lack of auditory consequences of unilateral inferior collicular lesion due to localized glioma surgery. Acta Neurochir (Wien)1994; 127: 161–5.
13.
FunaiHKitaharaNHayashidaT. Auditory evoked responses in five patients with pontine glioma. Audiol Jpn1995; 38: 87–95.
14.
GardiJMerzenichMMcKeanC. Origins of the scalp recorded frequency-following response in the cat. Audiology1979; 18: 358–81.
15.
KagaKShinodaYSuzukiJI. Origin of auditory brainstem responses in cats: Whole brainstem mapping, and a lesion and HRP study of the inferior colliculus. Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh)1997; 117: 197–201.
16.
FunaiHFunasakaS. Experimental study on the effect of inferior colliculus lesions upon auditory brain stem response. Audiology1983; 22: 9–19.
17.
WinerJADiamondITRaczkowskiD. Subdivisions of the auditory cortex of the cat: The retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase to the medial geniculate body and posterior thalamic nuclei. J Comp Neurol1977; 176: 387–417.
18.
AndersenRAKnightPLMerzenichMM. The thalamo-cortical and corticothalamic connections of AI, AII, and the anterior auditory field (AAF) in the cat: Evidence for two largely segregated systems of connections. J Comp Neurol1980; 194: 663–701.
19.
RauscheckerJP. Processing of complex sounds in the auditory cortex of cat, monkey, and man. Acta Otolaryngol Suppl (Stockh)1997(suppl 532): 34–8.
20.
OlsenJFSugaN. Combination-sensitive neurons in the medial geniculate body of the mustached bat: Encoding of relative velocity information. J Neurophysiol1991; 65: 1254–74.
21.
OlsenJFSugaN. Combination-sensitive neurons in the medial geniculate body of the mustached bat: Encoding of target range information. J Neurophysiol1991; 65: 1275–96.
22.
OlsenJFRauscheckerJP. Medial geniculate neurons in the squirrel monkey sensitive to combination of components in a species-specific vocalization. Soc Neurosci Abstr1992; 18: 883.
23.
HeJHashikawaT. Connections of the dorsal zone of cat auditory cortex. J Comp Neurol1998; 400: 334–48.
24.
HashimotoT. Information processing of speech sounds in the medial geniculate and inferior colliculus. Proc Jpn Acad1980; 56B: 294–9.
25.
KrausNMcGeeTCarrellTKingCLittmanTNicolT. Discrimination of speech-like contrasts in the auditory thalamus and cortex. J Acoust Soc Am1994; 96: 2758–68.
26.
TanakaHTaniguchiI. Responses of medial geniculate neurons to species-specific vocalized sounds in the guinea pig. Jpn J Physiol1991; 41: 817–29.
27.
KuwadaSYinTCWickesbergRE. Response of cat inferior colliculus neurons to binaural beat stimuli: Possible mechanisms for sound localization. Science1979; 206: 586–8.
28.
AitkinLJonesR. Azimuthal processing in the posterior auditory thalamus of cats. Neurosci Lett1992; 142: 81–4.
29.
ImigTJPoirierPIronsWASamsonFK. Monaural spectral contrast mechanism for neural sensitivity to sound direction in the medial geniculate body of the cat. J Neurophysiol1997; 78: 2754–71.
30.
KellyJBJudgePW. Effects of medial geniculate lesions on sound localization by the rat. J Neurophysiol1985; 53: 361–72.
