Capacity for plasticity in the adult owl auditory system expanded by juvenile experience

Science

Volumn 279, Issue 5356, 1998, Pages 1531-1533

  Knudsen, Eric I ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ANIMAL CELL; ANIMAL TISSUE; ARTICLE; AUDITORY SYSTEM; BIRD; BRAIN MAPPING; HEARING TEST; NONHUMAN; PLASTICITY; PRETECTUM; PRIORITY JOURNAL; RECEPTIVE FIELD; TUNING CURVE;

ADAPTATION, PHYSIOLOGICAL; AGING; ANIMALS; AUDITORY PATHWAYS; AUDITORY PERCEPTION; BIRDS; CUES; MEMORY; NEURONAL PLASTICITY; NEURONS; SOUND LOCALIZATION; SUPERIOR COLLICULUS; VISUAL FIELDS; VISUAL PATHWAYS; VISUAL PERCEPTION;

ANIMALIA; AVES; STRIGIFORMES; TYTO ALBA;

EID: 0032489635     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5356.1531     Document Type: Article

References (31)

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18. The richness of the environment provided by housing conditions has a profound influence on the capacity for plasticity. In this study, the owls lived in group flight rooms, which provide the most conducive conditions for plasticity of those previously tested. The sensitive period for the effects of prism experience on the auditory spatial tuning of tectal units was established with owls housed in these aviaries (6).
19. Prism-rearing began at 15 days of age for each owl, just as the eyelids first opened. Fresnel prisms were mounted in wire frames that were sutured to the scalp while the animal was anesthetized with halothane and nitrous oxide. The baby owls were housed together in a nest box. When the owls were about to fledge, at 60 days of age, the prisms were mounted in metal frames that were bolted to the animal's skull with a threaded nut that was cemented to the skull while the animal was anesthetized. At this time, the owls were released into a large group aviary.
20. Preparation of the animals, acoustic stimulation, and electrophysiological techniques were the same as reported previously (1, 5). 10. VRF locations were measured with prisms removed by presenting dark or light bars projected onto a calibrated tangent screen located 1.9 m in front of the owl.
21. Unit tuning for ITD was measured by delivering computer-generated noise bursts (4 kHz high-pass filtered; 50 ms duration; 0 ms rise/fall time; 1 per s; 20 to 30 dB above threshold; optimized ILD) via matched earphones. Each value of ITD was presented 10 to 20 times in a randomized, interleaved order. ITD tuning at each site was represented by the "best ITD," the center of the range of ITD values that evoked greater than 50% of the maximal response for that site. A "predicted normal best ITD" was derived from the location of the site's VRF, using a regression of best ITD on VRF location that was based on a large population of normal data (Fig. 1 B). ITD tuning adjustment was quantified as the difference between measured best ITD and the predicted normal best ITD, averaged across all sites.
22. ITD-VRF associations were assessed periodically by measuring ITD tuning and VRF locations at 9 to 19 recording sites sampled systematically across the optic tectum. Sites were sampled at a minimum interval of 400 μm in the rostroventral tectum. This portion of the tectum, which represents visual field locations within ±15° of the midsagittal plane and from 0° to -20° in elevation, contains neurons that shift their auditory tuning most reliably in young owls.
23. Population ITD tuning curves were derived from the sample of ITD tuning curves measured in a single experiment. To combine tuning curves across sites, the ITD tuning curve for each site was normalized to the maximum response. Then, the values of ITD that were tested were transformed into values of ITD relative to the predicted normal best ITD for that site, based on the site's VRF. The normalized responses for standard values of ITD (either 10- or 15-μs intervals) relative to predicted normal best ITD were interpolated. These interpolated responses were then averaged across all sites for each standard value of ITD.
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31. I thank P. Knudsen and S. Herring for technical support and C. Barberini, M. Brainard, D. Feldman, P. Hyde, G. Miller, and W. Zheng for reviewing the manuscript. Supported by grants from the McKnight Foundation and from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, 5 R01 DC0155-18.