Experience affects how brains respond to sound. Here, we examined how the sensitivity and
selectivity of auditory cortical neuronal responses were affected in adult rats by the repeated
presentation of a complex sound that was paired with basal forebrain stimulation. The
auditory cortical region that was responsive to complex sound was 2–5 five times greater in
area in paired-stimulation rats than in naive rats. Magnitudes of neuronal responses evoked
by complex sounds were also greatly increased by associative pairing, as were the …