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Behavioral training promotes multiple adaptive processes following acute hearing loss

  1. Peter Keating  Is a corresponding author
  2. Onayomi Rosenior-Patten
  3. Johannes C Dahmen
  4. Olivia Bell
  5. Andrew J King
  1. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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Cite this article as: eLife 2016;5:e12264 doi: 10.7554/eLife.12264

Abstract

The brain possesses a remarkable capacity to compensate for changes in inputs resulting from a range of sensory impairments. Developmental studies of sound localization have shown that adaptation to asymmetric hearing loss can be achieved either by reinterpreting altered spatial cues or by relying more on those cues that remain intact. Adaptation to monaural deprivation in adulthood is also possible, but appears to lack such flexibility. Here we show, however, that appropriate behavioral training enables monaurally-deprived adult humans to exploit both of these adaptive processes. Moreover, cortical recordings in ferrets reared with asymmetric hearing loss suggest that these forms of plasticity have distinct neural substrates. An ability to adapt to asymmetric hearing loss using multiple adaptive processes is therefore shared by different species and may persist throughout the lifespan. This highlights the fundamental flexibility of neural systems, and may also point toward novel therapeutic strategies for treating sensory disorders.

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Author details

  1. Peter Keating

    Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    peter.keating@dpag.ox.ac.uk
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  2. Onayomi Rosenior-Patten

    Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  3. Johannes C Dahmen

    Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  4. Olivia Bell

    Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.

  5. Andrew J King

    Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    Andrew J King, Reviewing editor, eLife.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures conformed to ethical standards approved by the Central University Research Ethics Committee (CUREC) at the University of Oxford. All work involving animals was performed under licenses granted by the UK Home Office under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986.

Human subjects: All procedures conformed to ethical standards approved by the Central University Research Ethics Committee (CUREC) at the University of Oxford. All human subjects provided informed written consent.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Thomas D Mrsic-Flogel, University of Basel, Switzerland

Publication history

  1. Received: October 12, 2015
  2. Accepted: March 23, 2016
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: March 23, 2016 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: April 20, 2016 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2016, Keating et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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