The Reorganization of Primary Auditory Cortex by Invasion of Ectopic Visual Inputs

Brain injury is a serious clinical problem. The success of recovery from brain injury involves functional compensation in the affected brain area. We are interested in general mechanisms that underlie compensatory plasticity after brain damage, particularly when multiple brain areas or multiple modalities are included. In this thesis, I studied the function of auditory cortex after recovery from neonatal midbrain damage as a model system that resembles patients with brain damage or sensory dysfunction. I addressed maladaptive changes of auditory cortex after invasion by ectopic visual inputs. I found that auditory cortex contained auditory, visual,