Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Developmental plasticity and memory

J P Rauschecker1

  • 1Laboratory of Neurophysiology, NIMH, Poolesville, MD 20837, USA.

Behavioural Brain Research
|January 23, 1995
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Young kittens with visual deprivation show enhanced auditory spatial tuning and localization abilities. This demonstrates crossmodal plasticity in higher cortical areas, adapting the brain to sensory changes.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Sentence reading: a functional MRI study at 4 tesla.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2013
Same author

Consensus for tinnitus patient assessment and treatment outcome measurement: Tinnitus Research Initiative meeting, Regensburg, July 2006.

Progress in brain research·2007
Same author

Structural brain changes in tinnitus.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2005
Same author

Sending sound to the brain.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2002
Same author

Cortical plasticity and music.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·2001
Same author

Functional specialization in rhesus monkey auditory cortex.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2001

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Biology
  • Sensory Processing

Background:

  • The cerebral cortex exhibits malleability during early development, particularly in primary sensory areas.
  • Plasticity in higher cortical association areas during development is less understood.
  • The anterior ectosylvian (AE) region of the parietal association cortex integrates multiple sensory modalities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate developmental plasticity in the AE region of the cat's parietal association cortex.
  • To determine if crossmodal plasticity occurs in higher cortical areas following sensory deprivation.
  • To assess the behavioral and neural consequences of visual deprivation on auditory processing.

Main Methods:

  • Studied developmental plasticity in the anterior ectosylvian (AE) region of kittens binocularly deprived of vision from birth.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Examined the cortical representation of sensory inputs in visually deprived and normal cats.
  • Tested auditory spatial tuning of single neurons in response to free-field sound sources.
  • Assessed auditory localization performance behaviorally in visually deprived and normal cats.

    • Main Results:

    • In visually deprived cats, the predominantly visual area AEV was largely taken over by auditory and somatosensory inputs.
    • Auditory neurons in visually deprived cats exhibited sharper spatial tuning compared to normal cats.
    • Visually deprived cats demonstrated superior auditory localization precision compared to normal cats.

    Conclusions:

    • Early visual deprivation induces significant crossmodal plasticity in higher cortical areas, such as the AE region.
    • The brain can adapt to altered sensory environments through compensatory mechanisms.
    • These findings suggest that synaptic mechanisms underlying developmental plasticity may share similarities with those of associative learning in adult brains.