eNeuro 2018; https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0206-18.2018

The lateral lines that enable fish to detect changes in the water around them are lined with hair cells, akin to the structures in the human ear that enable hearing. Zebrafish have been used to study hair cell death, and thus model hearing loss, but through chemical means of destroying the hair cells in their lateral lines. A new paper presents a larval zebrafish model of lateral line hair cell death brought about by acoustic, rather than chemical, trauma.

The process uses a cavitation device that creates air bubbles in response to noise stimulus from a small hydrophone. The size and timing of the acoustic bubbles can then be tuned to change the extent of hair cell damage.