GUINEA-PIGS were exposed to a traumatic sound inducing up to Θ dB hearing loss. Beside
the well described mechanical damage to outer hair cells, a total disruption of inner hair cell
(IHC)–auditory nerve synapses was acutely observed within the traumatized area. To test
the hypothesis that synaptic damage is due to an excessive release of glutamate by the
IHCs, we examined the protective effect of the glutamate antagonist kynurenate on noise-
induced hearing loss. The high degree of protection observed with kynurenate attests that …