Motherless quail mothers display impaired maternal behavior and produce more fearful and less socially motivated offspring

Pittet, Florent; Bot, Océane Le; Houdelier, Cécilia; Richard‐Yris, Marie‐Annick; Lumineau, Sophie

doi:10.1002/dev.21129

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…To assess the reactions of NB and B chicks to separation respectively from cagemate or from mother and cagemate, latencies to take first step was noted, as well as numbers of steps and distress calls. Chicks' general activity in this familiar environment is considered to reflect their reaction to separation from cagemate and the strength of filial bond in the case of brooded chicks (Cate, ; Pittet et al, in press).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By comparing behavioral characteristics of Japanese quail chicks reared in complete maternal deprivation and those of chicks adopted by foster mothers, several authors illustrated the fundamental role of mothers on behavioral ontogeny. They have evidenced maternal influence on a range of behaviors (Bertin and Richard‐Yris, ; De Margerie et al, ; Pittet et al, in press), including fearfulness (Bertin and Richard‐Yris, ; Richard‐Yris et al, ) and sociality (Bertin and Richard‐Yris, ; Formanek et al, ). Consequently, we hypothesized that quail mothers influenced the emergence of sex differences.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Precocial bird mothers shape sex differences in the behavior of their chicks

2014

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Compared to mammals and altricial birds, evaluations of differences related to precocial birds' sex have often been limited to sexual behavior. Nevertheless, the extensive use of precocial bird models for investigating behavioral development issues requires in depth knowledge concerning the emergence of sex differences. Here, we evaluated behavioral differences between Japanese quail chicks in relation to their sex. We know that maternal influences are strong and early social environment shapes behavioral development in this species. Therefore, we investigated the emergence of sex differences in two very different early social situations to evaluate the impact of precocial bird mothers on sex differences. We assessed behavioral differences related to sex of (1) non-brooded chicks and of (2) brooded chicks, using various ethological tests to evaluate emotional reactivity and social motivation differences related to sex. Our results show that both non-brooded and brooded chicks present behavioral differences related to sex. They differed greatly according to chicks' early experience. Sex-related differences between maternally deprived (non-brooded) chicks concerned mainly fearfulness, whereas differences between male and female brooded chicks concerned mainly their reactions to social isolation. We hypothesize that mothers attenuate sex differences related to fearfulness by being a model for responses to fear-eliciting situations and by providing a similar secure basis to both males and females. We finally propose that mothers induce differences in chicks' sociality by providing asymmetrical care toward males and females.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Precocial bird mothers shape sex differences in the behavior of their chicks

2014

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“…It is very likely that the mother induced vocal changes through both short‐ and long‐term influences on the behavioural phenotype of her young. In Japanese quail, mothered birds are more sensitive to social separation at young age (Bertin & Richard‐Yris, ) and adulthood (Pittet et al, ). Thus, the context of social isolation in our study may have led to an increased level of stress in mothered chicks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies based on a maternal deprivation paradigm in quails have already highlighted the non‐genetic role of the mother on the young's social motivation (Bertin & Richard‐Yris, ), emotivity (Pittet, Le Bot, Houdelier, Richard‐Yris, & Lumineau, ), spatial skills (de Margerie et al, ) and rhythmicity (Formanek, Richard‐Yris, Houdelier, & Lumineau, ). In our study, we did not examine vocal similarity between mother and chicks, but we aim to explore the maternal influences on vocal development in chicks of the Japanese quail, a species traditionally considered as a non‐vocal learner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal presence influences vocal development in the Japanese quail (Coturnix c. japonica)

Desmedt¹,

George²,

Benkada³

et al. 2020

Ethology

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Social influences on vocal development of young birds have been widely studied in oscine songbirds who learn to sing by vocal imitation of conspecifics, mainly male adults. In contrast, vocal development of non‐vocal learners such as Galliformes is considered as being under strong genetic influence and independent of the social environment. In this study, we investigated the role of the mother on the vocal development of young Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). We compared the vocal development of mothered and non‐mothered chicks during the first 21 days of life. We analysed the structural changes of two vocalisations: a) the rally call, emitted during long‐distance communication and in stressful situations, b) the contact call, emitted during short‐distance communication when chicks are in visual and/or auditory contact with congeners. We showed that temporal and spectral structures of the two types of calls changed during development and differed between mothered and non‐mothered chicks. These results demonstrate that maternal presence influences the vocal development of the young in the Japanese quail. Even if the adaptive value of such changes was not assessed, these results highlight that plasticity of vocalisations in species considered as non‐vocal learners has been underestimated.

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“…Variations in maternal care are known to have profound consequences on the behavioral development of offspring, particularly concerning social behavior (Pittet, Le Bot, Houdelier, Richard-Yris, & Lumineau, 2014b; Schino, Speranza, & Troisi, 2001; Spokas & Heimberg, 2008). Nevertheless, if slight differences in maternal care might have been undetected by our maternal behavior observation procedure, such discrete differences are unlikely to have mediated the transgenerational consequence of the chronic social instability procedure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic social instability in adult female rats alters social behavior, maternal aggression and offspring development

Pittet

Babb

Carini

et al. 2017

Developmental Psychobiology

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We investigated the consequences of chronic social instability (CSI) during adulthood on social and maternal behavior in females and social behavior of their offspring in a rat model. CSI consisted of changing the social partners of adult females every 2-3 days for 28 days, 2 weeks prior to mating. Females exposed to CSI behaved less aggressively and more pro-socially towards unfamiliar female intruders. Maternal care was not affected by CSI in a standard testing environment, but maternal behavior of CSI females was less disrupted by a male intruder. CSI females were quicker to attack prey and did not differ from control females in their saccharin consumption indicating, respectively, no stress-induced sensory-motor or reward system impairments. Offspring of CSI females exhibited slower growth and expressed more anxiety in social encounters. This study demonstrates continued adult vulnerability to social challenges with an impact specific to social situations for mothers and offspring.

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Motherless quail mothers display impaired maternal behavior and produce more fearful and less socially motivated offspring

Cited by 24 publications

References 70 publications

Precocial bird mothers shape sex differences in the behavior of their chicks

Precocial bird mothers shape sex differences in the behavior of their chicks

Maternal presence influences vocal development in the Japanese quail (Coturnix c. japonica)

Chronic social instability in adult female rats alters social behavior, maternal aggression and offspring development

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