Crossmodal reorganization in the early deaf switches sensory, but not behavioral roles of auditory cortext

It is well known that early disruption of sensory input from one modality can induce crossmodal reorganization of a deprived cortical area, resulting in compensatory abilities in the remaining senses. Compensatory effects, however, occur in selected cortical regions and it is not known whether such...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2011-05, Vol.108 (21), p.8856
Main Authors: Meredith, M Alex, Kryklywy, James, McMillan, Amee J, Malhotra, Shveta, Lum-Tai, Ryan, Lomber, Stephen G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Brain
Cats
Deafness
Ears & hearing
Eyes & eyesight
Sensory perception
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:It is well known that early disruption of sensory input from one modality can induce crossmodal reorganization of a deprived cortical area, resulting in compensatory abilities in the remaining senses. Compensatory effects, however, occur in selected cortical regions and it is not known whether such compensatory phenomena have any relation to the original function of the reorganized area. In the cortex of hearing cats, the auditory field of the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (FAES) is largely responsive to acoustic stimulation and its unilateral deactivation results in profound contralateral acoustic orienting deficits. Given these functional and behavioral roles, the FAES was studied in early-deafened cats to examine its crossmodal sensory properties as well as to assess the behavioral role of that reorganization. Recordings in the FAES of early-deafened adults revealed robust responses to visual stimulation as well as receptive fields that collectively represented the contralateral visual field. A second group of early-deafened cats was trained to localize visual targets in a perimetry array. In these animals, cooling loops were surgically placed on the FAES to reversibly deactivate the region, which resulted in substantial contralateral visual orienting deficits. These results demonstrate that crossmodal plasticity can substitute one sensory modality for another while maintaining the functional repertoire of the reorganized region. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490