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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 5, 3094-3109, Copyright © 1985 by Society for Neuroscience
Experience alters the spatial tuning of auditory units in the optic tectum during a sensitive period in the barn owl
EI Knudsen
The auditory spatial tuning of bimodal (auditory-visual) units in the optic
tectum of the barn owl was altered by raising animals with one ear
occluded. Changes in spatial tuning were assessed by comparing the location
of a unit's auditory best area with that of its visual receptive field. As
shown previously, auditory best areas are aligned with visual receptive
fields in the tecta of normal birds (Knudsen, E. I. (1982) J. Neurosci. 2:
1177-1194). It was demonstrated in this study that, when birds were raised
with one ear occluded, best areas and visual receptive fields were aligned
only as long as the earplug was in place. When the earplug was removed,
best areas and visual receptive fields became misaligned, indicating that a
change in auditory spatial tuning had taken place during the period of
occlusion. However, in a bird that received an earplug as an adult, no such
alterations in auditory spatial tuning were observed; even after 1 year of
monaural occlusion, auditory best areas and visual receptive fields were
misaligned so long as the earplug was in place, and were aligned when the
earplug was removed. These results suggest that exposure to abnormal
localization cues modifies the auditory spatial tuning of tectal units only
during a restricted, sensitive period early in development. After the
earplug was removed from a juvenile bird that had been raised with an
occluded ear, the initial misalignment between auditory best areas and
visual receptive fields decreased gradually over a period of weeks. In
contrast, when earplugs were removed from two adult birds that had been
raised with monaural occlusions, auditory- visual misalignments persisted
for as long as measurements were made, which was up to 1 year after earplug
removal. These data indicate that auditory cues become permanently
associated with locations in visual space during a critical period which
draws to a close at about the age when the animal reaches adulthood.
Horseradish peroxidase was injected into two optic tecta (in a single
animal) that contained units with permanently altered auditory spatial
tuning. The positions of retrogradely labeled cells in the external nucleus
of the inferior colliculus (ICX) were the same as those observed in control
birds (Knudsen, E. I., and P. F. Knudsen (1983) J. Comp. Neurol. 218: 187-
196). Thus, the changes in spatial tuning were not due to a shift in the
topographic projection from the ICX to the optic tectum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED
AT 400 WORDS)
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