Prolonged exposure to white noise during development in experimental animals can be detrimental to the formation of tonotopic maps in the auditory system.

“So one of the reasons why hearing a lot of white noise during development for long periods of time can be detrimental to the development of the auditory system is that these tonotopic maps don't form normally; at least, they don't in experimental animals.”

“But there are data published in the Journal Science some years ago showing that when they exposed very young animals to this white noise, it actually disrupted the maps of the auditory world within the brain.”