From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2009-07-17 20:03:50 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] abstract
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>, R Downs <ncferretmom@yahoo.com>
Hmmm, I wonder if any ferrets ever experience synesthesia, too?
(Among humans that shows up in an unusual percentage of physicists,
BTW.) It would be intriguing to know if there is neuron-response
overlap involving scents for any of the other ferret senses.
Hear Res. 2009 Jul 9. [Epub ahead of print]
Visual Influences on ferret auditory cortex.
Bizley JK, King AJ.
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford,
Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, UK.
Multisensory neurons are now known to be widespread in low-level
regions of the cortex usually thought of as being responsible for
modality-specific processing. The auditory cortex provides a
particularly striking example of this, exhibiting responses to both
visual and somatosensory stimulation. Single-neuron recording studies
in ferrets have shown that each of auditory fields that have been
characterized using physiological and anatomical criteria also
receives visual inputs, with the incidence of visually-sensitive
neurons ranging from 15-20% in the primary areas to around 50% or more
in higher-level areas. Although some neurons exhibit spiking responses
to visual stimulation, these inputs often have subthreshold influences
that modulate the responses of the cortical neurons to sound. Insights
into the possible role played by the visual inputs can be obtained by
examining their sources of origin and the way in which they alter the
processing capabilities of neurons in the auditory cortex. These
studies suggest that one of the functions of the visual input to
auditory cortex is to sharpen the relatively imprecise spatial coding
typically found there. Because the extent to which this happens varies
between cortical fields, the investigation of multisensory
interactions can also help in understanding their relative
contributions to auditory perception.
PMID: 19595754
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
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