Abstract
This study demonstrates that the adult form of 'tonotopic maps' of sound frequency in the rat primary auditory cortex (A1) arises from parallel developmental processes involving two cortical zones: the progressive differentiation and refinement of selectively tone-responsive receptive fields within an initially broadly-tuned posterior zone, and the progressive loss of tone-evoked, short-latency response over an initially large, very broadly tuned anterior zone. The formation of tonotopic maps in A1 was specifically influenced by a rat pup's early acoustic environments. Exposure to pulsed tones resulted in accelerated emergence and an expansion of A1 representations of those specific tone frequencies, as well as a deteriorated tonotopicity and broader-than-normal receptive fields. Thus, auditory experiences during early postnatal development are important in shaping the functional development of auditory cortical representations of specific acoustic environments.
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Acknowledgements
We thank D. Blake, T. Moallem, H. Tao and M. Poo for discussion. This work was supported by NIH grants NS-10414 and NS-34835 and by grants from the Sandler and MIND Foundations.
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Zhang, L., Bao, S. & Merzenich, M. Persistent and specific influences of early acoustic environments on primary auditory cortex. Nat Neurosci 4, 1123–1130 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn745
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn745
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