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It has been found that in many mammalian animals,including mankind, non-traumatic“conditioning”noiseexposures can make the inner ear more resistant to trau-matic noise exposure. The possible mechanism underlyingthis phenomenon which is now known as“toughening”,has been extensively studied . All the explanations aboutthis mechanism, however, have not been acceptable. Asa primary component of the structural filaments of the haircells and some supporting cells, filamentous actin (F-actin) are believed to be the basic unit in hair cell reac-tion. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that F-actinis involved in actin-mediated motile processes of the outerhair cells. Thus, F-actin may play an important role inthe process of“toughening”. The present study is ①toobtain more information on the distribution of F-actin inthe guinea pig cochlea, ②to observe the effects of condi-tioning noise exposure on the expression of F-actin, and③to determine the relationship between the changes of F-actin expression in the outer hair cells (OHC) and the“toughening” phenomenon.