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Science 7 May 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5416, pp. 925 - 926
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5416.925
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Perspectives

Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives

NEUROSCIENCE:
Enhanced: Sensory Maps on the Move

Michael P. Stryker

The auditory and visual space maps of barn owls are closely connected, enabling the birds to precisely locate prey. If prism spectacles are placed over the eyes of juvenile owls, the visual and auditory space maps rearrange so that both maps remain ALIGNED. In his Perspective, Michael Stryker explains new findings reported in this issue (Zheng and Knudsen) that show that this neural plasticity results not only from the addition of new inputs but also from the selective inhibition of the inputs responsible for the old map, the connections for which remain in place but are overwhelmed by new inhibition. He further posits that combined plasticity of both excitatory and inhibitory inputs may be involved in rearrangements of other types of sensory maps.

The author is at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0444, USA. E-mail: stryker{at}phy.ucsf.edu

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