Retuning the brain by learning, literature, and logic: Reply to Suga

Suga’s Letter to the Editor in this issue (Suga 2008) is in response to my Review published in Learning & Memory early last year (Weinberger 2007). He objects to my characterization and critique of the Gao–Suga model. He also argues that our model is wrong in positing a key role for the magnocellular medial geniculate/posterior intralaminar nucleus (MGm/PIN) of the auditory thalamus in learning-induced auditory cortical tuning shifts and behavior. However, Suga’s letter does not actually defend the Gao–Suga model (Suga and Ma 2003) that I reviewed. Rather, he sets forth a new (previously unpublished) version, without so informing the reader. He then attempts to nullify my critique that his original model omitted the MGm/PIN by discussing his new model, which does incorporate these nuclei, albeit with dubious functions. This slight-of-hand and other sweeping claims preclude the possibility of an adequate response in this limited format because more space is needed to explain errors of fact and logic than to promulgate them. Thus, we cannot include an adequate review of Suga’s revised model. Neither can an explication, defense, or summary of our model and its tested predictions be presented. Readers should consult the target article for such information about our model and for a broad review of auditory associative representational plasticity (Weinberger 2007).