we thank nih national institute of neurological disorders and stroke ( ninds ) r01ns085214 and fred hutchinson cancer research center ( fhcrc ) new development grant for financial support .
 abstractcross - modal plasticity is a striking adaptive feature of the brain , whereby the loss of one sensory modality induces cortical reorganization that leads to enhanced sensory performance in remaining modalities . 
 much is known about the macroscopic modifications in the brain that underly cross - modal plasticity and the associated changes in sensory performance . 
 in contrast there is relatively scant information about the molecular and cellular underpinnings of this mechanism . 
 we hypothesized that cross - modal plasticity is a fundamental feature of the nervous system . 
 as such , it should be found in organisms with brains that are substantially less complex than our own . 
 indeed , we discovered a cross - modal plasticity mechanism in the roundworm caenorhabditis elegans , whose nervous system is composed of only 302 neurons . 
 taking advantage of the simplicity of the c. elegans nervous system , we were able to comprehensively study cross - modal plasticity from molecule through circuit to behavior . 
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