Standardization of Electrophysiological Measures of Hearing in Marine Mammals

摘要

The general objective of this study was to identify the conditions under which electrophysiological methods could be used to investigate hearing in pinnipeds and to establish how such measurements compared with those obtained using standard behavioral techniques. To meet this objective, a research partnership was established involving participants from academia (University of California Santa Cruz), government (Navy Marine Mammal Program), and private industry (BIOMIMETICA); this partnership was later expanded to include a foreign specialist from the Russian Academy of Sciences. During this effort, data collection systems and research protocols were adapted and field tested for use with pinnipeds. Individuals representing three pinniped species (California sea lions, harbor seals, and northern elephant seals) were tested, either voluntarily or while under anesthesia. Research accomplishments included measuring and characterizing auditory brainstem responses, development of response amplitude maps.