Plasticity of the auditory modality

Abstract

The human brain shows remarkable abilities to adapt to change. This faculty, called neuroplasticity is the driving factor enabling an organism to respond to development, experience and physiological changes. It is a lifelong property of the brain that takes place on various macro- and microscopic levels. Neuroplasticity can occur within a local neural network but it can also take place cross-connecting different brain regions responsible for different functions. Two highly interconnected neural systems are the visual and auditory system. The behavioral relevance of their interconnection becomes especially prominent in the ability for spatial orientation. A loss or a reduced function in one of these two systems has repeatedly been reported to affect the functionality of the remaining intact system. This thesis investigated qualitative and quantitative effects of neuroplasticity of the auditory system for three defined deficitary situations: blindness, deafness, and single-sided deafness as a unilateral loss of a paired sensory organ.