Development of the place principle: acoustic trauma.

Developmental changes in the site of receptor damage following pure-tone acoustic overstimulation were examined in the basilar papillae of embryonic and hatchling chickens. During development, a systematic shift in the position of damage toward the apex of the cochlea was produced by each of three frequencies, suggesting that the transduction properties of the sensory epithelium systematically shift with age. These results imply that neurons in the central nervous system may be maximally stimulated by different sounds during development.