Owl study sheds light on how young brains learn
Barinaga, M.
Science 279(5356): 1451-1452
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9508718 Document Number: 486799
New insights into how young brains learn are provided in a paper by neuroscientist Eric Knudsen in this issue. It is known that the brains of young animals absorb skills and information with an ease and depth unmatched in later life. Knudsen studied the merging of auditory and visual maps of space by young barn owls that had adapted to visual fields shifted by prisms placed over their eyes. Unlike controls, birds who had so adapted were able to relearn this task as adults. The trained barn owls had apparently grown extra neural connections that remained unused until later in life. This finding indicates that early experience imposes a "memory trace" on the brain that can lie dormant until adulthood, when it can be reactivated.