Ketamine-xylazine anesthesia depth affects auditory neuronal responses in the lateral superior olive complex of the gerbil

Studies of in vivo neuronal responses to auditory inputs in the superior olive complex (SOC) are usually done under anesthesia. However, little attention has been paid to the effect of anesthesia itself on response properties. Here, we assessed the effect of anesthesia depth under ketamine-xylazine anesthetics on auditory evoked response properties of lateral SOC neurons. Anesthesia depth was tracked by monitoring EEG spectral peak frequencies. An increase in anesthesia depth led to a decrease of spontaneous discharge activities and an elevated response threshold. The temporal responses to suprathreshold tones were also affected, with adapted responses reduced but peak responses unaffected. Deepening the anesthesia depth also increased first spike latency. However, spike jitter was not affected. Auditory brainstem responses to clicks confirmed that ketamine-xylazine anesthesia depth affects auditory neuronal activities and the effect on spike rate and spike timing persists through the auditory pathway. We concluded from those observations that ketamine-xylazine affects lateral SOC response properties depending on the anesthesia depth. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We studied how the depth of ketamine-xylazine anesthesia altered response properties of lateral superior olive complex neurons, and auditory brainstem evoked responses. Our results provide direct evidence that anesthesia depth affects auditory neuronal responses and reinforce the notion that both the anesthetics and the anesthesia depth should be considered when interpreting/comparing in vivo neuronal recordings.