Norman M. Weinberger Learning and Receptive Field Plasticity in the Auditory Cortex: Identification of a Memory Code?

Introduction • Investigations of neuroplasticity cover an exceptionally broad span of neuroscience, including development, aging, brain insult, and learning. This chapter concerns the latter, specifically the receptive field plasticity that develops in the primary auditory cortex during normal behavioral learning. This line of inquiry has not only revealed that the primary sensory cortex is specifically retuned by learning but also that receptive field plasticity permits the potential discovery of memory codes.