PONE-D-23-42866Title: Photobiomodulation therapy in improvement of harmful neural plasticity in sodium salicylate-induced tinnitusPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Mahmoudian,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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“Special thanks to Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) (project number of 91058320, grant code no. insf-98020383-1400/03/23). With grateful of Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), research & Technology deputy. Thankfulness to the colleagues of the "Center of Experimental and Comparative of Medical Studies of IUMS".”

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: N/A

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I enjoyed reading this paper. Well done.

Please ensure that the manuscript is thoroughly checked for English expression and grammar.

For example:

line 57 perception of sound THAT occurs

line 72 "needed for widespread use" needs to be explained more clearly

the paragraph from line 78 is very clumsy

line 99 "In scientific sources" is better expressed as "PREVIOUS WORK HAS SHOWN"

line 128 "In animal models, tinnitus IS USUALLY INDUCED by"

line 114 the sentence beginning with "Then, during ...." appears incomplete or clumsy

line 188 is "should be" the correct way to express this

line 358 replace "common, complex and cure-less symptom" with something like "common AND complex CONDITION THAT HAS NO CURE"

line 356 I am not sure that "The GIN value represented the percentage inhibition", rather that the GIN ratio was calculated by ...?

line 379 & 382 replace "in the review articles" with "in PREVIOUS STUDIES"

line 382 replace not confirmed with NOT DEMONSTRATED

line 441 replace "needed to be confirmed " with "NEEDED TO CONFIRM THIS"

In the methods section, generally the study design is followed by the treatments (anaesthesia etc, PBMt) followed by outcome measures, and lastly followed by statistics and other analyses.

The table of PBMt parameters lists energy density as 99J/cm2. This is at the optical fibre outlet? Was there any effort to measure the energy density that the animal actually received? This needs to be addressed

I think that the last paragraph of the Discussion beginning line on 449 would fit better as the concluding paragraph of the Conclusion

Reviewer #2: Introduction

The introduction is too long. The information on plasticity could be reduced. Also, information on the method for confirming the occurrence of tinnitus could be reported in the methodology, or in the discussion, to clarify the findings with the model used.

Methods

The anesthesia topic is before the photobiomodulation topic. Please provide the information in chronological order in your methodology. In addition, your methodology should end with the topic of statistical analysis.

Figure 1 does not have a good resolution. Please include a figure with a good resolution.

Did the animals in the control group receive the placebo treatment? If so, include this information in the methodology. How was this procedure carried out?

Results

Maintain in the graphs only the symbols that represent a significant difference. Remove the bars with the abbreviation “ns”. In addition, the resolution of the graphs needs to be improved.

I suggest that the Electrophysiological (ABR) test topic be before the GPIAS test. This seems to be more consistent with your experimental design.

Include the ANOVA value in the description of the results. If so, you could use a description that indicates the observed phenomenon more precisely. For example: Animals from tinnitus group showed the reduction of the mean GIN value, compared to the control group. However, Animals from photobiomodulation group showed an increase of the mean GIN value, compared to the control group.

When describing the results, clearly present the ANOVA values and the post hoc values

The figures need a better resolution

Discussion

Insert the topic limitations of the study at the end of the discussion.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Title: Photobiomodulation therapy in improvement of harmful neural plasticity in sodium salicylate-induced tinnitus

PONE-D-23-42866R1

Dear Dr. Mahmoudian,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Michael R Hamblin

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: All comments addressed. Thank you for your attention to this.

The report is a valuable addition to the PBM field.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

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