Intersensory coordination and the effects of early sensory deprivation

The effect of early visual deprivation on the ability of dark- (DR) and light-reared (LR) rats to learn temporal discriminations involving sounds and lights and to abstract the intersensory correspondence involving duration from initial modality-specific training was examined in this study. While visually inexperienced DR rats were somewhat less successful in acquiring an initial discrimination involving visual events and responding to a rule reversal per se, they were as effective as their visually experienced LR counterparts in demonstrating cross-modal transfer (CMT) to signals in a new modality. The results revealed by the investigation are discussed in terms of the consequences and lack of consequences of the manipulation of early visual experience on the ontogeny of intersensory perceptual development in mammals.