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Sound is an important part of man's contact with the environment and has served as critical means for survival throughout his evolution. As a result of exposure to noise, physiological functions such as those involving structures of the auditory and non-auditory systems might be damaged.

We have previously reported that noise-exposed developing rats elicited hippocampal-related histological, biochemical and behavioral changes. However, no data about the time lapse of these changes were reported. Moreover, measurements of auditory pathway function were not performed in exposed animals. Therefore, with the present work, we aim to test the onset and the persistence of the different extra-auditory abnormalities observed in noise-exposed rats and to evaluate auditory pathway integrity.

Male Wistar rats of 15 days were exposed to moderate noise levels (95–97 dB SPL, 2 h a day) during one day (acute noise …