The effect of binocular lid suture on auditory responses in the guinea-pig superior colliculus

Guinea-pigs were deprived of visual experience from soon after birth until the terminal auditory mapping experiment (performed between 57 and 96 days after birth). The visual deprivation was effectuated by binocular eyelid suture. Multi-unit responses were obtained from the superior colliculus (SC) in response ot free field presentation of bursts of broad band noise. In lid sutured animals a topographically ordered auditory map of azimuthal space was demonstrated in the SC. The auditory responses were, however, not as precise or tuned when compared with normal animals. Nevertheless, lid sutured animals were not as severely affected as dark reared animals in which no auditory map is evident in the SC. This study thus highlights the difference between binocular lid suture and dark rearing as methods of visual deprivation.