Chelsey Busk Biology 1615 Summary Abstract Killer whale audiograms, collected from two trained adult females,

using behavioral responses and auditory evoked potentials. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) was 12 dB less sensitive than behavioral responses. Most sensitive, to the orca, was a frequency of 20 kHz. Introduction Orcinus orcas have an auditory system capable of hearing high frequency tones, accompanied with broad range and high temporal resolution. If in a pure tone, the killer whale can react to a sound up to 120 kHz. This study was done to test the reactions, both the auditory brainstem response and behaviorally, to different frequencys of sound. I. MATERIAL AND METHODS A. Subjects The test was performed on two adult female killer whales.Yaka being 26-28 years of age, and Vigga a 16-18 year old. B. ABR experimental conditions During the experiment the whales were instructed to remain still alongside the tank, apex of melon of head facing target, blowholes breaking water surface. A transducer was positioned

1M below water surface and 1M from whales rostrum. Throughout testing slight movements were allowed, but the test was called off if movement was more than 10cm. C. ABR stimuli Tone bursts were digitally generated testing different frequencies in random order. Tone bursts lasted 1ms at frequencies of 1 and 2, and at all other frequencies lasted 0.5ms. The monitoring hydrophone was stationed 0.5M lateral to the whale, where the primary sound channel is presumed to be located. With the whale in position the stimuli were calibrated for the second time, the first without the whale. It was discovered that the signal level would fluctuate between 6-10 dB. D. Stimuli presentation Tone bursts were presented at 30/s in blocks of 350 stimuli. The tone was decreased by 10 dB each time until there was no ABR response, for two consecutive trials, at the same tone. Tone was then increased, in 5 dB steps, until ABR reappeared. Measurements were taken at least two times on each frequency. E. ABR threshold determination. Delphinid ABR wave IV was used as a dependant measure of threshold, chosen for it high peak-to-peak amplitude. Threshold was defined as minimum amount of stimulus power needed to evoke a response greater than background noise. F. Evoked potential recording With the whale in position 2 gold EEG electrodes, within suction cups, were placed on the whale. A signal was differentially amplified between the 2 electrodes. Amplitude swings

greater than 150 uV were excluded using online artifact rejection. 350 artifact free traces were required to collect an average. If response corresponded with another trace collected at the same frequency and intensity, in same recording section, it was deemed acceptable. G. Behavioral methods With the whale stationed a tone burst lasting 2 seconds occurred. If the whale responded within 4 seconds it was marked as a behavioral response. If the whale responded after 4 seconds it was marked as a miss. H. Threshold determination for behavioral audiograms Sound levels were either increased or decreased 6-8 dB depending on the detection, or failure to detect, of a tone. Threshold was defined as two detections or two failures at one intensity level. To exclude misreading, catch trials were performed with; no signal presentation, very high and low frequencies, setting signal level to 0, and disconnecting single components of the sound system. II. RESULTS A. ABR data
The ABR waveform was similar to that of other delphinids and followed the tone onset within 10ms. The greatest wave, PIII-NIV, had peak-to-peak amplitude of about 1 uV. Response decreased as stimuli was lessened. B. Audiogram data Tones between 1 and 100 kHz were responded to both behaviorally and electrophysiologically. One whale responded to 120 kHz during a behavioral study. The mean audiogram, computed from

behavioral and ABR thresholds, was a U shape, with its most sensitive frequency at 20 kHz. Overall, the ABR audiogram resembled the behavioral audiogram, but was 12 dB less sensitive. C. Behavioral responses During the catch trials with both whales, the false alarms were less than 5%. The whales performance on trials that were 20 dB greater than threshold was analyzed. There were no mistakes made by the whales in these tests, with an accuracy of 95%.

III. DISCUSSION A. Audiogram comparisons The killer whales audiogram is similar to that of other delphinids and extends to at least 120 kHz. A study performed by Hall and Johnson reported similar results, also showing a Ushaped audiogram, though Hall and Johnsons cut off at a high frequency of 32 kHz. A study done by Ridgeway and Carders study, states that high frequency hearing loss is associated with age and sex in delphinids. Though when compared to other species the results are unlikely; the male used in this study was a subadult therefore age couldnt be a problem, and there is no link between hearing loss and sex. The hearing loss in the male test could be attributed to genetic and/or pathogenic disease, or noise exposure. B. ABR and behavioral audiogram differences Differences between behavioral and ABR audiograms can be caused by the small amplitude of the killer whale ABR. Natural variability in responsiveness, and variability in the received signal intensity, are two other factors.

It is common in mammals for ABR thresholds to be 10-30 dB greater than the behavioral thresholds. The ABR and behavioral audiograms should be considered an estimate of orcinus hearing thresholds, because the received intensity of a tone can differ. Therefore the study is showing a rough estimate of hearing sensitivity. C. Odontocete ABR audiograms: Effects of body and head size. The size of the mammal has an effect on the audiograms as can be seen by comparing Orcinus who have a brain-body mass ratio of 1:1000, and dolphins whose brain-body mass is 1:100. From looking at this data we can see that the ABR amplitude decreases with a lower brain-body mass ratio.

Biography Bain, David.E., Kiehl, Kent., Pennington, Scott., Scott Wong, and Kenneth Henry., Szymanski,Michael.D.(1998,September 8) Retrieved September 3,2013 from http://www.nrc-iol.org/cores/ccnlab/publications/OrcinusAudio.pdf.