A critical period for the recovery of sound localization accuracy following monaural occlusion in the barn owl

Abstract

We studied the ability of barn owls to recover accurate sound localization after being raised with one ear occluded. Most of the owls had ear plugs inserted before they reached adult size, and therefore they never experienced normal adult localization cues until their ear plugs were removed. Upon removal of their ear plugs, these owls exhibited large systematic sound localization errors. The rate at which they recovered accurate localization decreased with the age of the bird at the time of plug removal, and recovery essentially ceased when owls reached 38 to 42 weeks of age. We interpret this age as the end of a critical period for the consolidation of associations between auditory cues and locations in space. Owls that had experienced adult localization cues for a short period of time before ear plugging recovered normal accuracy rapidly, even if they remained plugged well past the end of the critical period. This suggests that a brief exposure to normal adult cues early in the critical period is sufficient to enable the recovery of localization accuracy much later in life.