Protective Effects of Ginkgo biloba Extract EGb 761 against Noise Trauma-Induced Hearing Loss and Tinnitus Development

Figure 18

Proposed model of the effects of EGb 761 treatment on auditory processing. Upper panel: evoked neuronal response rate in AI for iso-intensity pure tone stimuli in vehicle (black) and EGb 761 treated animals (red). Lower panel: neuronal threshold and tuning of cortical neurons in both animal groups. Based on our data, we propose two main effects of EGb 761 on auditory processing: first, an increase of auditory brainstem activity leading to an increased thalamic input to AI, which results in lower response thresholds and shorter response latencies, and second, an asymmetric effect on lateral inhibition in AI that reduces overall response rates, shifts the best frequency (BF) to higher values, and sharpens spectral tuning (𝑄₃₀-values).