Early auditory deprivation and exploratory activity.

Abstract

An experiment dealing with the effect of early auditory deprivation on the exploratory behavior of mice is reported. At 2 months of age, deaf and hearing mice, raised in an enriched environment, showed no difference in their pattern of exploratory behavior. However, when tested at maturity, deaf and hearing mice showed different patterns of behavior. These results were viewed as consistent with Shultz's sensori-static theory, and the suggestion was made that deaf mice use their intact senses in a unique way to obtain information and stimulation from the environment.Recent evidence (MacDougall, 1971) suggests that early auditory deprivation in rats and mice does not result in the development of increased visual ability. In the present experiment an attempt is made to determine if this lack of change in perceptual ability occurs despite increased use of the intact senses during exploratory activity. An increase in the use of the senses could be expected on the basis of Hebb and Thompson's (1954) conception of arousal. Also, Shultz (1965) in his sensori-static model maintains that an organism seeks to maintain an optimum level of arousal through sensory stimulation. This suggests that an animal that is deprived of stimulation in a particular modality would seek extra stimulation in the nonaffected modalities.In the present study, deaf and hearing mice were studied at two different age levels. Earlier studies by Zucker andBindra (1961) andGyllensten, Malmfors, and Norlin (1966) suggest that different effects may be seen at different developmental periods. Also, since Rosenzweig (1966) reported that the evidence for sensory compensation is mainly restricted to situations where animals are raised in an enriched en-

Sex-Specific ADHD-like Behaviour, Altered Metabolic Functions, and Altered EEG Activity in Sialyltransferase ST3GAL5-Deficient Mice

“…Whilst this deafness would impact certain behaviours in mice, it is unlikely to be of relevance in the present study. The measures of anxiety and locomotion have previously been shown to be unaffected by deafness in genetic mouse models [ 31 , 32 ]. Furthermore, the changes in these measures were different in the male and female St3gal5 −/− mice, which display no sex difference in the development of deafness [ 4 , 30 ].…”

Dialogue with the deaf: The future role of psychology.

“…With D. O. Hebb, Dalbir Bindra, Peter Milner, Ron Melzac, Al Bregman, Virginia Douglas, and others as strong influences, that was not a hard move to make. For the next 3 years, I turned to rats and mice to study visual perception and auditory deprivation in the developing brain (J. C. MacDougall & Rabinovitch, 1972). To me at the time, that was real science.…”

The effects of auditory deprivation on successive processing.

“…In addition, Conrad (1979) has suggested that, if extrapolation from histological and other studies of animals deprived of auditory sensation to humans is valid, then auditory deprivation should be expected to influence cognitive organization. Animal studies have shown that there are histological changes at the cortical level in the presence of sensory deprivation (Gyllenstein, Malmfors & Norrlin, 1966), and behavioural differences in adult life have been found between congenitally deaf and hearing rats (MacDougall & Rabinovitch, 1972). At the present time, however, the issue of the neurological effects of auditory deprivation in humans on central activities such as successsive processing is unresolved (Conrad, 1979).…”