Visual experience-dependent auditory and visual plasticity in the mouse visual cortex

A lack of early visual experience causes pronounced auditory and visual cross-modal changes. However, the visual cortical region-specific cross-modal organization down to the single neuron level remains unknown. Here we used two-photon calcium imaging in awake mice that were reared in darkness from birth to map auditory and visual responsiveness of single neurons. We targeted neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) and higher visual cortical areas (HVAs) that resemble the ventral and dorsal stream regions. We found that lateral dorsal stream areas showed a pronounced increase in auditory response strength, even after accounting for tone-induced whisker movement. Strikingly, this was accompanied by a decreased visual drive, measured in number of recruited neurons and response strength, although these visual effects were more widespread across cortical regions. Together, these results provide a comprehensive functional map of auditory and visual cross-modal changes after a lack of early visual experience across the mouse visual cortex. Moreover, our results suggest that a lack of visual drive of dorsal stream regions might provide an opportunity for remaining senses to take over.