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A site of auditory experience-dependent plasticity in the neural representation of auditory space in the barn owl's inferior colliculus
- Source :
- The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 20(9)
- Publication Year :
- 2000
-
Abstract
- The barn owl's optic tectum contains a map of auditory space that is based, in part, on a map of interaural time difference (ITD). Previous studies have shown that this ITD map is shaped by auditory experience. In this study, we investigated whether the plasticity responsible for experience-induced changes in ITD tuning in the tectum occurs within the tectum itself or at an earlier stage in the auditory pathway.We altered auditory experience in young owls by implanting an acoustic filtering device in one ear that caused frequency-dependent changes in sound timing and level. We analyzed the representation of ITD in normal and device-reared owls in two nuclei in the ascending pathway: the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICX), the primary source of ascending auditory input to the tectum, and the lateral shell of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICCls), the primary source of input to the ICX. In the ICX, device rearing caused adaptive, frequency-dependent changes in ITD tuning, as well as changes in frequency tuning. These changes in tuning were similar to changes that occurred in the optic tectum in the same owls. In contrast, in the ICCls, tuning for ITD and frequency was unaffected by device rearing. The data indicate that plasticity at the level of the ICX is largely responsible for the adaptive adjustments in ITD tuning and frequency tuning that are observed in the optic tecta of owls raised with abnormal auditory experience.
- Subjects :
- Inferior colliculus
medicine.medical_specialty
Superior Colliculi
Auditory Pathways
media_common.quotation_subject
Interaural time difference
Biology
Audiology
Implants, Experimental
medicine
Contrast (vision)
Animals
Sound Localization
TECTA
ARTICLE
media_common
Neuronal Plasticity
General Neuroscience
Barn-owl
Optic tectum
biology.organism_classification
Strigiformes
Inferior Colliculi
body regions
Acoustic Stimulation
Developmental plasticity
sense organs
Tectum
psychological phenomena and processes
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15292401
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....431a8fb11b142f082f7b297f2c9e8f10