Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Prog Brain Res. 2011;191:119-31. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53752-2.00009-6.
The rodent auditory cortex has provided a particularly useful model for studying cortical plasticity phenomenology and mechanisms, both in infant and in adult animal models. Much of our initial understanding of the neurological processes underlying learning-induced changes in the cortex stems from the early exploitation of this model. More recent studies have provided a rich and elaborate demonstration of the "rules" governing representational plasticity induced during the critical period (CP) and in the longer post-CP "adult" plasticity epoch. These studies have also contributed importantly to the application of these "rules" to the development of practical training tools designed to improve the functional capacities of the auditory, language, and reading capacities of both children with developmental impairments and adults with acquired impairments in the auditory/aural speed and related cognitive domains. Using age as a connecting thread, we review recent studies performed in the rat primary auditory cortex (A1) that have provided further insight into the role of sensory experience in the shaping auditory signal representations, and into their possible role in shaping the machinery that regulates "adult" plasticity in A1. With this background, the role of auditory training in the remediation of auditory processing impairments is briefly discussed.
啮齿动物听觉皮层为研究皮层可塑性现象和机制提供了一个特别有用的模型，无论是在婴儿还是成年动物模型中都是如此。我们对学习诱导皮层变化背后的神经过程的初步理解很大程度上源于对该模型的早期利用。最近的研究为“规则”提供了丰富而详尽的证明，这些“规则”支配着在关键期 (CP) 和更长的 CP 后“成年”可塑性时期期间诱导的代表性可塑性。这些研究还为将这些“规则”应用于开发旨在提高儿童发育障碍和听觉/听觉速度及相关认知领域获得障碍的成年人的听觉、语言和阅读能力的实用训练工具方面做出了重要贡献。我们使用年龄作为联系线索，回顾了在大鼠初级听觉皮层 (A1) 中进行的最近的研究，这些研究进一步深入了解了感觉经验在塑造听觉信号表示方面的作用，以及它们在塑造调节 A1 中“成年”可塑性的机制方面的可能作用。在此背景下，简要讨论了听觉训练在听觉处理障碍矫正中的作用。
