Week 14: Functional Organization and Plasticity of Auditory Complex, Ch. 23; J. P. Rauschecker

This chapter gives a very general overview of brain plasticity. The prior chapters we have read regarding brain plasticity went into more detail. However, there are a few important contributions of this chapter that have not yet been covered elsewhere. In particular, the plasticity of the brain resulting from blind individuals (and animals) is discussed. In blind individuals, the sense of hearing is often for finely tuned. In fact, using functional brain imaging, it has been shown that the part of the brain usually used for visual processing can be used instead for auditory processing in blind people. This brain plasticity is exemplified by the greater precision of blind people in localizing sounds.

'Anterior STG [superior temporal gyrus] projects to orbitofrontal cortex, which plays a role in working memory for objects.’ Also, the anterior STG and orbito-frontal cortex ‘are responsible for the processing of complex auditory “images,” patterns, or objects… they should also be the shorage houses of musical memories’ because of a fundamental tenant of the Hebbian model of memory, which says that memories are stored where they are processed. Conductors also show greater precision in the localization of sound; this is an example of non-blind people who have been able to develop functional brain plasticity. Age is also an important factor in brain plasticity, as the brain tends to become less plastic as we age.