Abstract
In the cortex, demarcated unimodal sensory regions often respond to unforeseen sensory stimuli and exhibit plasticity. The current investigation aimed to test responses of primary visual cortex (V1) neurons in response to an adapting auditory stimulus by entirely refraining visual stimulus during sound stimulation. Using extracellular recordings in anesthetized cats, we demonstrate that, unlike the prevailing observation of only a slight modulation in the firing rate of the neurons, sound imposition entirely shifted the orientation selectivity of visual neurons in both supra- and infragranular layers of V1. Our results suggest that neurons specific to either layer dynamically integrate features of the sound and change the V1 organization. Intriguingly, these experiments present novel findings that the mere presentation of a prolonged auditory stimulus may drastically recalibrate the tuning properties of visual neurons. These results highlight the phenomenal neuroplasticity of visual neurons and certainly initiate a new line of research in cross-modal plasticity.