Development
Like many areas in the neocortex, the functional properties of the adult primary auditory cortex (A1) are highly dependent on the sounds encountered early in life. This has been best studied using animal models, especially cats and rats. In the rat, exposure to a single frequency during postnatal day (P) 11 to 13 can cause a 2-fold expansion in the representation of that frequency in A1. Importantly, the change is persistent, in that it lasts throughout the animal's life, and specific, in that the same exposure outside of that period causes no lasting change in the tonotopy of A1.
Read more about this topic: Primary Auditory Cortex
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