Prenatal visual experience induces postnatal motor laterality in Japanese quail chicks (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

Species-typical prenatal visual stimulation in avian species is a necessary component in the development of population level lateralized behaviors. This relationship suggests that species-typical developmental outcomes result from organismic and environmental constraints and experiences shared by members of a species. We examined the effects of prenatal visual experience on the development of turning bias and footedness in Japanese quail chicks, a species which does not demonstrate a naturally occurring level of population laterality and only weak individual laterality. Chicks (n=167) were exposed to one of four prenatal conditions: both eye systems exposed to enhanced visual experience, right eye system exposed/left eye system occluded, left eye system exposed/right eye system occluded, or no enhanced visual experience. When subjects were exposed to prenatal visual stimulation, individual and population level laterality was induced. These results suggest that unilateral prenatal visual experience to the right eye or left eye system is sufficient to induce and influence the direction of individual and population laterality in a species that does not normal demonstrate such biases. The results also provide further evidence that prenatal sensory experiences can elicit the development of postnatal lateralization.

Asymmetry of brain and behavior in animals: Its development, function, and human relevance

“…Chicks hatched from eggs incubated in the dark are unable to use left-right cues to distinguish between objects. It is possible that the light-induced ability to use cues indicating the difference between left and right explains the results of Casey and Sleigh (2013), who recently reported that, in quail chicks, unilateral visual experience before hatching generates a population bias in turning behavior measured posthatching.…”

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

“…Surprisingly, this issue remains particularly underexplored in these models as sex differences have been evidenced only in domestic chicks' fearfulness (Jones, ) and sociality (Vallortigara et al, ). Currently, Japanese quail is the precocial bird model the most studied for behavioral development (Hegyi and Schwabl, ; Casey and Sleigh, in press; De Margerie et al, ; Houdelier et al, ). However, two papers report inconclusive empirical results concerning the development of emotional and social sex‐related differences of this model.…”

Asymmetry of Motor Behavior and Sensory Perception: Which Comes First?

“…As known from experiments conducted by Casey and Lickliter [91] and Casey and Sleigh [92] on quail chicks (unfortunately not on domestic chicks although the results pertain to this species), monocular light stimulation during the late sensitive period just before hatching causes the development of population-level motor asymmetry after hatching. Exposing the late-stage embryo to visual experience via the right eye only (i.e., the natural condition) or via the left eye only induces population-level lateralization of motor behavior, measured as side bias in a Y-maze and foot preference to step up on to a platform, whereas no motor asymmetry is seen if both eyes receive exposure to enhanced visual inputs [92]. This demonstrates that visual stimulation can influence the development of motor asymmetry.…”