ANALYSIS OF SPACE BY THE AUDITORY SYSTEM

早期生活中的感官体验可以有深刻的 对大脑功能的长期影响。在大脑的关键时期 发展，神经连接的模式特别容易受到影响 对经验的塑造影响。拟议的研究将 在细胞和分子水平上研究如何体验 改变大脑以及关键期背后的机制。这个 结果可能会对我们治疗各种疾病的能力产生重大影响 人类功能障碍，特别是那些由出生缺陷引起的功能障碍， 儿童疾病或伤害，必然导致异常 环境对大脑发育的影响。 实验系统是中枢听觉系统的一部分。 谷仓猫头鹰中与声音定位有关的通路；谷仓 猫头鹰的听力、声音定位能力和相关神经 路径与人类的路径相似。行为研究表明 声音的局部化是由 早期生活中的听觉和视觉体验，以及敏感和 对关键时期进行了详细的描述。一种神经关联 的行为可塑性在视顶盖中被发现(优势 丘脑)，神经元对听觉和视觉刺激都有反应。 一种太空特有的方式。听觉空间的大适应性变化 这些神经元的调谐是在生命早期诱导的，要么是由慢性 单声道遮挡(改变声音本地化提示的值) 或视野的棱镜位移(这改变了 提示值对应的位置)。 神经生理学、药理学和解剖学技术 将被用来研究这些基础的机制 依赖经验的变化。提供数字合成的声音 通过耳机将用来描述听觉上的变化 根据本地化提示的单位调谐的变化进行的空间调谐。 听觉通路中发生适应性变化的部位 将使用急性和慢性单元进行生理学鉴定 正在录音。将使用各种组织学技术来寻找 寻找可塑性的解剖学关联。曾经的可塑性场所 是确定的，调整过程的动态，性质 指导性信号，这个过程的药理学基础将是 调查过了。有了这些信息，细胞和分子 调节这些的敏感期和关键期的相互关系 将确定适应性更改，并尝试阻止 或者恢复可塑性。 这项研究的结果将揭示出 大脑发育，早期正常和异常的后果 经验，以及大脑用来适应性处理的策略 各种感官挑战。

Sensory experience during early life can have profound and long-lasting effects on brain function. During critical periods in brain development, patterns of neural connectivity are especially susceptible to the shaping influence of experience. The proposed research will investigate, at the cellular and molecular levels, how experience modifies the brain and what mechanisms underlie critical periods. The results could have a major impact on our ability to treat a wide variety of human dysfunctions, particularly those resulting from birth defects, childhood disease or injury which necessarily entail abnormal environmental influences on brain development. The experimental system is a portion of the central auditory pathway in barn owls that is involved with sound localization; the barn owl's hearing, sound localization capabilities and associated neural pathways are similar to those of humans. Behavioral studies have shown that sound localization is shaped powerfully by an interaction of auditory and visual experience during early life, and the sensitive and critical periods have been characterized in detail. A neural correlate of the behavioral plasticity has been found in the optic tectum (superior colliculus), where neurons respond to both auditory and visual stimuli in a space-specific manner. Large adaptive changes in the auditory spatial tuning of these neurons are induced during early life either by chronic monaural occlusion (which changes the values of sound localization cues) or prismatic displacement of the visual field (which changes the locations to which cue values correspond). Neurophysiological, pharmacological and anatomical techniques will be used to study the mechanisms that underlie these experience-dependent changes. Digitally synthesized sound delivered through earphones will be used to describe the changes in auditory spatial tuning in terms of changes in unit tuning for localization cues. The sites in the auditory pathway where the adaptive changes take place will be identified physiologically using acute and chronic unit recording. A variety of histological techniques will be used to search for anatomical correlates of the plasticity. Once the site of plasticity is determined, the dynamics of the adjustment process, the nature of the instructive signal, and the pharmacological basis of the process will be investigated. With this information in hand, cellular and molecular correlates of the sensitive and critical periods that regulate these adaptive changes will be determined, and attempts will be made to block or restore the plasticity. The results of this research will reveal general principles of brain development, the consequences of early normal and abnormal experience, and the strategies used by the brain to deal adaptively with different kinds of sensory challenges.