Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Signaling - Call For Papers

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 25 November 1983:
Vol. 222. no. 4626, pp. 939 - 942
DOI: 10.1126/science.6635667
Prev | Table of Contents

Articles

Science, Vol 222, Issue 4626, 939-942
Copyright © 1983 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Early auditory experience aligns the auditory map of space in the optic tectum of the barn owl

EI Knudsen

Auditory and visual space are mapped in the optic tectum of the barn owl. Normally, these maps of space are in close mutual alignment. Ear plugs inserted unilaterally in young barn owls disrupted the binaural cues that constitute the basis of the auditory map. Yet when recordings were made from the tecta of these birds as adults, the auditory and visual maps were in register. When the ear plugs were removed from these adult birds and binaural balance was restored, the auditory maps were shifted substantially relative to the visual maps and relative to the physical borders of the tecta. These results demonstrate that the neural connectivity that gives rise to the auditory map of space in the optic tectum can be modified by experience in such a way that spatial alignment between sensory modalities is maintained.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Information optimization in coupled audio-visual cortical maps.
M. Kardar and A. Zee (2002)
PNAS 99, 15894-15897
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Adaptive Axonal Remodeling in the Midbrain Auditory Space Map.
W. M. DeBello, D. E. Feldman, and E. I. Knudsen (2001)
J. Neurosci. 21, 3161-3174
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Adaptive Adjustment of Connectivity in the Inferior Colliculus Revealed by Focal Pharmacological Inactivation.
J. I. Gold and E. I. Knudsen (2001)
J Neurophysiol 85, 1575-1584
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Traces of learning in the auditory localization pathway.
E. I. Knudsen, W. Zheng, and W. M. DeBello (2000)
PNAS 97, 11815-11820
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Site of Auditory Experience-Dependent Plasticity in the Neural Representation of Auditory Space in the Barn Owl's Inferior Colliculus.
J. I. Gold and E. I. Knudsen (2000)
J. Neurosci. 20, 3469-3486
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Early Visual Experience Shapes the Representation of Auditory Space in the Forebrain Gaze Fields of the Barn Owl.
G. L. Miller and E. I. Knudsen (1999)
J. Neurosci. 19, 2326-2336
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Visual instruction of the neural map of auditory space in the developing optic tectum.
E. Knudsen and M. Brainard (1991)
Science 253, 85-87
   Abstract »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)