Crossmodal training reduces behavioral deficits in rats after either auditory or visual cortex lesions

• Published in: Physiology & behavior Vol. 55; no. 2; pp. 293 - 300
• Main Authors: Delay, Eugene R, Rudolph, Theodor L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Elsevier Inc 01.02.1994; New York, NY Elsevier
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Animals; Auditory cortex; Auditory Cortex - anatomy & histology; Auditory Cortex - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Crossmodal transfer; Cues; Discrimination Learning - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Lesion; Male; Photic Stimulation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rat; Rats; Recovery of function; Reversal Learning - physiology; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Visual cortex; Visual Cortex - anatomy & histology; Visual Cortex - physiology; Recovery of function; Visual cortex; Lesion; Crossmodal transfer; Rat; Auditory cortex; Electrical stimulus; Rodentia; Stimulus modality; Central nervous system; Instrumental conditioning; Male; Recovery; Vertebrata; Visual stimulus; Mammalia; Acquisition process; Acoustic stimulus; Visual pathway; Animal; Auditory pathway; Preconditioning; Avoidance; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/0031-9384(94)90136-8

Rats were trained with either visual or auditory intensity cues until they emitted nine avoidance responses in 10 trials ( 9 10 ) prior to bilateral ablation of the corresponding sensory neocortex. Six days after surgery, rats were trained to 5 10 criterion in one of the following conditions: within-modality direct, within-modality reversal, crossmodality direct, crossmodality reversal, or no training control. The next day all rats were retrained to 9 10 on their preoperative tasks. For visual decorticate rats, the no training and the visual within-modality direct groups relearned the discrimination at the same rate as preoperative learning. Auditory crossmodal direct training enhanced relearning more than other forms of training and visual within-modality reversal training hindered retraining. For auditory decorticate rats, similar postoperative auditory within-modality and visual crossmodality training effects were seen during retraining of the auditory discrimination. These findings suggest crossmodality training facilitates functional recovery through relational information and learning sets transferred from experimental training to the relearning task.