Environmental Noise Retards Auditory Cortical Development

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1082163
• Publication Date: 2003-04-17T20:04:03Z
• Authors: Edward F. Chang; Michael M. Merzenich
• Keywords: Stimulus (psychology)

The mammalian auditory cortex normally undergoes rapid and progressive functional maturation. Here we show that rearing infant rat pups in continuous, moderate-level noise delayed the emergence of adultlike topographic representational order refinement response selectivity primary (A1) long beyond normal developmental benchmarks. When those noise-reared adult rats were subsequently exposed to a pulsed pure-tone stimulus, A1 rapidly reorganized, demonstrating exposure-driven plasticity characteristic critical period was still ongoing. These results demonstrate organization is shaped by young animal's exposure salient, structured acoustic inputs-and implicate as risk factor for abnormal child development.