Basal forebrain stimulation changes cortical sensitivities to complex sound

Experience affects how brains respond to sound. Here. we examined how the s ensitivity and selectivity of auditory cortical neuronal responses were aff ected in adult rats by the repeated presentation of a complex sound that wa s paired with basal forebrain stimulation. The auditory cortical region tha t was responsive to complex sound was 2-5 five times greater in area in pai red-stimulation rats than in naive rats. Magnitudes of neuronal responses e voked by complex sounds were also greatly increased by associative pairing, as were the percentages of neurons that responded selectively to the speci fic spectrotemporal features that were paired with stimulation. These findi ngs demonstrate that feature selectivity within the auditory cortex can be flexibly altered in adult mammals through appropriate intensive training. N euroReport 12:2283-2287 (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.