title: Noise-rearing disrupts the maturation of multisensory integration.
abstract: It is commonly believed that the ability to integrate information from different senses develops according to associative learning principles as neurons acquire experience with co-active cross-modal inputs. However, previous studies have not distinguished between requirements for co-activation versus co-variation. To determine whether cross-modal co-activation is sufficient for this purpose in visual-auditory superior colliculus (SC) neurons, animals were reared in constant omnidirectional noise. By masking most spatiotemporally discrete auditory experiences, the noise created a sensory landscape that decoupled stimulus co-activation and co-variance. Although a near-normal complement of visual-auditory SC neurons developed, the vast majority could not engage in multisensory integration, revealing that visual-auditory co-activation was insufficient for this purpose. That experience with co-varying stimuli is required for multisensory maturation is consistent with the role of the SC in detecting and locating biologically significant events, but it also seems likely that this is a general requirement for multisensory maturation throughout the brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Jinghong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Benjamin A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Rowland
authors.forename: Terrence R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Stanford
authors.forename: Barry E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Stein
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002415:Cats; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: cat; cross-modal; hearing; vision