SYP and hearing loss disorder: Previous work in mice found reduced α-synuclein and synaptophysin expression in the cochlea, and especially medial olivocochlear efferent terminals contacting the outer hair cells, in C57 mice (which show accelerated age-related hearing loss) compared to CBA mice (which show little age-related hearing loss), suggesting a link between α-synuclein and susceptibility to age-related cochlear pathology (Park et al., 2011).