title: A four-day period of bimodality auditory and visual experience is sufficient to permit normal emergence of the map of auditory space in the guinea pig superior colliculus.
abstract: Previous work has shown that if guinea pigs are deprived of simultaneous visual and auditory experience during a 4-day period 26-30 days after birth (DAB), this prevents the normal emergence of an auditory space map in the superior colliculus. The present work reports that if this 4-day period is the only developmental period in which the animals have simultaneous bimodality experience, the auditory space map appears at the normal time. Apart from this time-window animals were deprived of either visual experience (by dark-rearing) or of normal auditory experience (by rearing in an environment of omnidirectional masking noise). We conclude that the period 26-30 DAB is a crucial developmental period during which coincident auditory and visual experience is utilized in the initial formation of the collicular map of auditory space.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Medical Research, London, U.K.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Withington-Wray
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Binns
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Keating
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*