Brief periods of visual deprivation in adults increase performance on auditory tasks

Plastic changes in the brain are primarily limited to early postnatal periods. Recovery of adult brain plasticity is critical for the effective development of therapies. A brief (1-2 weeks) duration of visual deprivation (dark exposure, DE) in adult mice can trigger functional plasticity of thalamocortical and intracortical circuits in the primary auditory cortex suggesting improved sound processing. We tested if DE enhances the ability of adult mice to detect sounds. We trained and continuously evaluated the behavioral performance of mice in control and DE conditions using automated home-cage training. Consistent with age-related peripheral hearing loss present in C57BL/6J mice, we observed decreased performance for high-frequency sounds with age, which was reduced by DE. In CBA mice with preserved peripheral hearing, we also found that DE showed modest auditory performance improvements in low and mid frequencies over time compared to the control.