Researchers study the effects of stress auditory processing by examining mice

By examining the mice, the team discovered a clear effect of chronic stress on sound responses over time.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF FEBRUARY 11, 2025 22:46

An illustrative image of a mouse. (photo credit: INGIMAGE)

Chronic stress changes the way our brains process sound, according to research published by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev on Tuesday.

While it is known that stress impacts learning and decision-making, Dr. Jennifer Resnik of the university’s Department of Life Sciences conducted tests using mice to find whether stress influences other basic brain functions.

"We know that chronic stress is a risk factor for several psychiatric and sensory disorders. However, there is little research on how our brains process neutral sounds under chronic stress," she explained in her findings, which were published in PLOS Biology.

The research did not focus on how stress affects the ear itself. Rather, her team – comprised of her students Ghattas Bisharat, Ekaterina Kaganovski, Hila Sapir, Anita Temnogorod, and Tal Levy – examined the effects of chronic stress on auditory processing in the brain.

By examining the mice, the team discovered a clear effect of chronic stress on sound responses over time. As more stressors were applied, sounds at lower decibel levels triggered consistently weaker reactions in the mice while maintaining strong responses to higher decibel sounds.

An illustrative image of test tubes in a lab. (credit: INGIMAGE)

According to Dr. Resnik, the effect may be due to one type of inhibitory cell becoming significantly more active under conditions of repeated stress, leading to it suppressing other cells.

They also discovered that this effect may be driven by one type of inhibitory cell becoming vastly more active under conditions of repeated stress and suppressing other cells. 

Impacts of repeated stress

The team found that SST cells in the brain (which control how ‘excited’ other brain cells get and are important for learning and memory) fired much more strongly when a sound was played, while the activities of pyramidal and PV cells (the ‘messenger’ cells) dropped. 

That may explain the dampening of sounds, according to Dr. Resnik.

"Our research suggests that repeated stress doesn’t just impact our reactions to emotionally charged stimuli - it may also alter how we respond to everyday neutral stimuli," she concluded.