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Multisensory plasticity in adulthood: cross-modal experience enhances neuronal excitability and exposes silent inputs.
- Source :
-
Journal of Neurophysiology . Jan2013, Vol. 109 Issue 2, p464-474. 11p. - Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- Multisensory superior colliculus neurons in cats were found to retain substantial plasticity to short-term, site-specific experience with cross-modal stimuli well into adulthood. Following cross-modal exposure trials, these neurons substantially increased their sensitivity to the cross-modal stimulus configuration as well as to its individual component stimuli. In many cases, the exposure experience also revealed a previously ineffective or “silent” input channel, rendering it overtly responsive. These experience-induced changes required relatively few exposure trials and could be retained for more than 1 h. However, their induction was generally restricted to experience with cross-modal stimuli. Only rarely were they induced by exposure to a modality-specific stimulus and were never induced by stimulating a previously ineffective input channel. This short-term plasticity likely provides substantial benefits to the organism in dealing with ongoing and sequential events that take place at a given location in space and may reflect the ability of multisensory superior colliculus neurons to rapidly alter their response properties to accommodate to changes in environmental challenges and event probabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00223077
- Volume :
- 109
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Neurophysiology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 84785701
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00739.2012