A 4-DAY PERIOD OF BIMODALITY AUDITORY AND VISUAL EXPERIENCE IS SUFFICIENT TO PERMIT NORMAL EMERGENCE OF THE MAP OF AUDITORY SPACE IN THE GUINEA-PIG SUPERIOR COLLICULUS

Previous work has shown that if guinea pigs are deprived of simultaneous visual and auditory experience during a 4-day period 26-30 days after birth (DAB), this prevents the normal emergence of an auditory space map in the superior colliculus. The present work reports that if this 4-day period is the only developmental period in which the animals have simultaneous bimodality experience, the auditory space map appears at the normal time. Apart from this time-window animals were deprived of either visual experience (by dark-rearing) or of normal auditory experience (by rearing in an environment of omnidirectional masking noise). We conclude that the period 26-30 DAB is a crucial developmental period during which coincident auditory and visual experience is utilized in the initial formation of the collicular map of auditory space. © 1990.