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Instructed learning in the auditory localization pathway of the barn owl

Nature volume 417, pages 322–328 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

A bird sings and you turn to look at it — a process so automatic it seems simple. But is it? Our ability to localize the source of a sound relies on complex neural computations that translate auditory localization cues into representations of space. In barn owls, the visual system is important in teaching the auditory system how to translate cues. This example of instructed plasticity is highly quantifiable and demonstrates mechanisms and principles of learning that may be used widely throughout the central nervous system.

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Figure 1: The relationship between auditory cue values and locations in space for a barn owl.
Figure 2: Plasticity of auditory orienting behaviour of a juvenile owl, resulting from prism experience.
Figure 3: Midbrain and forebrain pathways that mediate auditory orienting responses.
Figure 4: Plasticity of auditory tuning in the optic tectum of a juvenile barn owl resulting from prism experience.
Figure 5: Plasticity of the anatomical projection from the ICC to the ICX, resulting from prism experience.
Figure 6: Changes in neuronal connectivity that accompany the acquisition of a new map of ITD in the ICX.
Figure 7: The effect of prism experience on information flow in the midbrain auditory localization pathway.
Figure 8: Effect of age and prior experience on ITD map plasticity, as induced by prism experience.

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Acknowledgements

I thank P. Knudsen for technical support and B. Linkenhoker and Y. Gutfreund for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was support by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the March of Dimes and the McKnight Foundation.

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  1. Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Eric I. Knudsen

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Correspondence to Eric I. Knudsen.

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Knudsen, E. Instructed learning in the auditory localization pathway of the barn owl. Nature 417, 322–328 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/417322a

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