Responses in the left and right entopallium are differently affected by light stimulation in embryo.

Sensory stimulation during the prenatal period has been argued to be a main factor in establishing asymmetry in the vertebrate brain. However, though largely studied in behavior and neuroanatomy, nothing is known on the effects of light stimulation in embryo on the activities of single neurons. We performed single-unit recordings from the left and right entopallium of dark- and light-incubated chicks, following ipsi-, contra-, and bilateral visual stimulation. Light incubation increased the general responsiveness of visual neurons in both the left and the right entopallium. Entopallial responses were clearly lateralized in dark-incubated chicks, which showed a general right-hemispheric dominance. This could be suppressed or inverted after light incubation, revealing the presence of both spontaneous and light-dependent asymmetries. These results suggest that asymmetry in single-neuron activity is present at the onset and can be modulated by environmental stimuli such as light exposure in embryos.

Hierarchical processing of feature, egocentric and relational information for spatial orientation in domestic chicks.

Animals can use different types of information for navigation. Domestic chicks (Gallus gallus) prefer to use local features as a beacon over spatial relational information. However, the role of egocentric navigation strategies is less understood. Here, we tested domestic chicks' egocentric and allocentric orientation abilities in a large circular arena. In experiment 1, we investigated whether domestic chicks possess a side bias during viewpoint-dependent egocentric orientation, revealing facilitation for targets on the chicks' left side. Experiment 2 showed that local features are preferred over viewpoint-dependent egocentric information when the two conflict. Lastly, in experiment 3, we found that in a situation where there is a choice between egocentric and allocentric spatial relational information provided by free-standing objects, chicks preferentially rely on egocentric information. We conclude that chicks orient according to a hierarchy of cues, in which the use of the visual appearance of an object is the dominant strategy, followed by viewpoint-dependent egocentric information and finally by spatial relational information.

In paired preference tests, domestic chicks innately choose the colour green over red, and the shape of a frog over a sphere when both stimuli are green.

Many animals express unlearned colour preferences that depend on the context in which signals are encountered. These colour biases may have evolved in response to the signalling system to which they relate. For example, many aposematic animals advertise their unprofitability with red warning signals. Predators' innate biases against these warning colours have been suggested as one of the potential explanations for the initial evolution of aposematism. It is unclear, however, whether unlearned colour preferences reported in a number of species is truly an innate behaviour or whether it is based on prior experience. We tested the spontaneous colour and shape preferences of dark-hatched, unfed, and visually naive domestic chicks (Gallus gallus). In four experiments, we presented chicks with a choice between either red (a colour typically associated with warning patterns) or green (a colour associated with palatable cryptic prey), volume-matched spheres (representing a generalised fruit shape) or frogs (representing an aposematic animal's shape). Chicks innately preferred green stimuli and avoided red. Chicks also preferred the shape of a frog over a sphere when both stimuli were green. However, no preference for frogs over spheres was present when stimuli were red. Male chicks that experienced a bitter taste of quinine immediately before the preference test showed a higher preference for green frog-shaped stimuli. Our results suggest that newly hatched chicks innately integrate colour and shape cues during decision making, and that this can be augmented by other sensory experiences. Innate and experience-based behaviour could confer a fitness advantage to novel aposematic prey, and favour the initial evolution of conspicuous colouration.

Spatial cognition and the avian hippocampus: Research in domestic chicks.

In this review, we discuss the functional equivalence of the avian and mammalian hippocampus, based mostly on our own research in domestic chicks, which provide an important developmental model (most research on spatial cognition in other birds relies on adult animals). In birds, like in mammals, the hippocampus plays a central role in processing spatial information. However, the structure of this homolog area shows remarkable differences between birds and mammals. To understand the evolutionary origin of the neural mechanisms for spatial navigation, it is important to test how far theories developed for the mammalian hippocampus can also be applied to the avian hippocampal formation. To address this issue, we present a brief overview of studies carried out in domestic chicks, investigating the direct involvement of chicks' hippocampus homolog in spatial navigation.

Number neurons in the nidopallium of young domestic chicks.

Numerical cognition is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. Domestic chicks are a widely used developmental model for studying numerical cognition. Soon after hatching, chicks can perform sophisticated numerical tasks. Nevertheless, the neural basis of their numerical abilities has remained unknown. Here, we describe number neurons in the caudal nidopallium (functionally equivalent to the mammalian prefrontal cortex) of young domestic chicks. Number neurons that we found in young chicks showed remarkable similarities to those in the prefrontal cortex and caudal nidopallium of adult animals. Thus, our results suggest that numerosity perception based on number neurons might be an inborn feature of the vertebrate brain.

Active exploration of an environment drives the activation of the hippocampus-amygdala complex of domestic chicks.

In birds, like in mammals, the hippocampus critically mediates spatial navigation through the formation of a spatial map. This study investigates the impact of active exploration of an environment on the hippocampus of young domestic chicks. Chicks that were free to actively explore the environment exhibited a significantly higher neural activation (measured by c-Fos expression) compared with those that passively observed the same environment from a restricted area. The difference was limited to the anterior and the dorsolateral parts of the intermediate hippocampus. Furthermore, the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala showed a higher c-Fos expression in the active exploration group than in the passive observation group. In both brain regions, brain activation was correlated with the number of locations that chicks visited during the test. This suggests that the increase of c-Fos expression in the hippocampus is related to increased firing rates of spatially coding neurons. Furthermore, our study indicates a functional linkage of the hippocampus and nucleus taeniae of the amygdala in processing spatial information. Overall, with the present study, we confirm that in birds, like in mammals, hippocampus and amygdala functions are linked and likely related to spatial representations.

Activation of the Nucleus Taeniae of the Amygdala by Umami Taste in Domestic Chicks (Gallus gallus).

In chickens, the sense of taste plays an important role in detecting nutrients and choosing feed. The molecular mechanisms underlying the taste-sensing system of chickens are well studied, but the neural mechanisms underlying taste reactivity have received less attention. Here we report the short-term taste behaviour of chickens towards umami and bitter (quinine) taste solutions and the associated neural activity in the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala, nucleus accumbens and lateral septum. We found that chickens had more contact with and drank greater volumes of umami than bitter or a water control, and that chicks displayed increased head shaking in response to bitter compared to the other tastes. We found that there was a higher neural activity, measured as c-Fos activation, in response to umami taste in the right hemisphere of the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala. In the left hemisphere, there was a higher c-Fos activation of the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala in response to bitter than in the right hemisphere. Our findings provide clear evidence that chickens respond differently to umami and bitter tastes, that there is a lateralised response to tastes at the neural level, and reveals a new function of the avian nucleus taeniae of the amygdala as a region processing reward information.

Light-incubation effects on lateralisation of single unit responses in the visual Wulst of domestic chicks.

Since the ground-breaking discovery that in-egg light exposure triggers the emergence of visual lateralisation, domestic chicks became a crucial model for research on the interaction of environmental and genetic influences for brain development. In domestic chick embryos, light exposure induces neuroanatomical asymmetries in the strength of visual projections from the thalamus to the visual Wulst. Consequently, the right visual Wulst receives more bilateral information from the two eyes than the left one. How this impacts visual Wulst's physiology is still unknown. This paper investigates the visual response properties of neurons in the left and right Wulst of dark- and light-incubated chicks, studying the effect of light incubation on bilaterally responsive cells that integrate information from both eyes. We recorded from a large number of visually responsive units, providing the first direct evidence of lateralisation in the neural response properties of units of the visual Wulst. While we confirm that some forms of lateralisation are induced by embryonic light exposure, we found also many cases of light-independent asymmetries. Moreover, we found a strong effect of in-egg light exposure on the general development of the functional properties of units in the two hemispheres. This indicates that the effect of embryonic stimulation goes beyond its contribution to the emergence of some forms of lateralisation, with influences on the maturation of visual units in both hemispheres.

Anatomical asymmetries in the tectofugal pathway of dark-incubated domestic chicks: Rightwards lateralization of parvalbumin neurons in the entopallium.

The discovery of the role of light exposure for the development of lateralization in domestic chick embryos revolutionized this research field. However, two main issues remain unresolved: (i) while in chicks anatomical light-dependent lateralization is mostly confined to the thalamofugal visual pathway, in pigeons only the tectofugal pathway is lateralized after light exposure. However, no study in either species ever investigated anatomical lateralization in the entopallium, the forebrain station of the tectofugal pathway. (ii) It is now known that lateralization can be observed also in dark-incubated chicks, both at the behavioural and at the Immediate Early Gene-expression level. We hypothesized that lateralization of the tectofugal system may underlie these light-independent effects. To investigate structural lateralization in the tectofugal pathway of dark-incubated chicks, we used parvalbumin (PV) as a marker of a sub population of entopallial neurons, quantifying PV-ir cell densities in the left and right entopallium. We found higher density in the right hemisphere, revealing for the first time anatomical lateralization in entopallium and confirming its potential role in supporting lateralized brain processing in dark-incubated birds. Results are discussed in relation to the possible functional role of PV-ir cells in inhibitory neural functions.

Sensitive periods for social development: Interactions between predisposed and learned mechanisms.

We analysed research that makes use of precocial species as animal models to describe the interaction of predisposed mechanisms and environmental factors in early learning, in particular for the development of social cognition. We also highlight the role of sensitive periods in this interaction, focusing on domestic chicks as one of the main animal models for this field. In the first section of the review, we focus on the emergence of early predispositions to attend to social partners. These attentional biases appear before any learning experience about social stimuli. However, non-specific experiences occurring during sensitive periods of the early post-natal life determine the emergence of these predisposed mechanisms for the detection of social partners. Social predispositions have an important role for the development learning-based social cognitive functions, showing the interdependence of predisposed and learned mechanisms in shaping social development. In the second part of the review we concentrate on the reciprocal interactions between filial imprinting and spontaneous (not learned) social predispositions. Reciprocal influences between these two sets of mechanisms ensure that, in the natural environment, filial imprinting will target appropriate social objects. Neural and physiological mechanisms regulating the sensitive periods for the emergence of social predispositions and for filial imprinting learning are also described.

Neural basis of unfamiliar conspecific recognition in domestic chicks (Gallus Gallus domesticus).

Domestic chickens are able to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar conspecifics, however the neuronal mechanisms mediating this behaviour are almost unknown. Moreover, the lateralisation of chicks' social recognition has only been investigated at the behavioural level, but not at the neural level. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that exposure to unfamiliar conspecifics will selectively activate septum, hippocampus or nucleus taeniae of the amygdala of young domestic chicks. Moreover we also wanted to test the lateralisation of this response. For this purpose, we used the immediate early gene product c-Fos to map neural activity. Chicks were housed in pairs for one week. At test, either one of the two chicks was exchanged by an unfamiliar individual (experimental 'unfamiliar' group) or the familiar individual was briefly removed and then placed back in its original cage (control 'familiar' group). Analyses of chicks' interactions with the familiar/unfamiliar social companion revealed a higher number of social pecks directed towards unfamiliar individuals, compared to familiar controls. Moreover, in the group exposed to the unfamiliar individual a significantly higher activation was present in the dorsal and ventral septum of the left hemisphere and in the ventral hippocampus of the right hemisphere, compared to the control condition. These effects were neither present in other subareas of hippocampus or septum, nor in the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala. Our study thus indicates selective lateralised involvement of domestic chicks' septal and hippocampal subregions in responses to unfamiliar conspecific.

Selective activation of the right hippocampus during navigation by spatial cues in domestic chicks (Gallus gallus).

In different vertebrate species, hippocampus plays a crucial role for spatial orientation. However, even though cognitive lateralization is widespread in the animal kingdom, the lateralization of this hippocampal function has been poorly studied. The aim of the present study was to investigate the lateralization of hippocampal activation in domestic chicks, during spatial navigation in relation to free-standing objects. Two groups of chicks were trained to find food in one of the feeders located in a large circular arena. Chicks of one group solved the task using the relational spatial information provided by free-standing objects present in the arena, while the other group used the local appearance of the baited feeder as a beacon. The immediate early gene product c-Fos was employed to map neural activation of hippocampus and medial striatum of both hemispheres. Chicks that used spatial cues for navigation showed higher activation of the right hippocampus compared to chicks that oriented by local features and compared to the left hippocampus. Such differences between the two groups were not present in the left hippocampus or in the medial striatum. Relational spatial information seems thus to be selectively processed by the right hippocampus in domestic chicks. The results are discussed in light of existing evidence of hippocampal lateralization of spatial processing in chicks, with particular attention to the contrasting evidence found in pigeons.

The effect of monocular occlusion on hippocampal c-Fos expression in domestic chicks (Gallus gallus).

In birds, like in mammals, the hippocampus is particularly sensitive to exposure to novel environments, a function that is based on visual input. Chicks' eyes are placed laterally and their optic fibers project mainly to the contralateral brain hemispheres, with only little direct interhemispheric coupling. Thus, monocular occlusion has been frequently used in chicks to document functional specialization of the two hemispheres. However, we do not know whether monocular occlusion influences hippocampal activation. The aim of the present work was to fill this gap by directly testing this hypothesis. To induce hippocampal activation, chicks were exposed to a novel environment with their left or right eye occluded, or in conditions of binocular vision. Their hippocampal expression of c-Fos (neural activity marker) was compared to a baseline group that remained in a familiar environment. Interestingly, while the hippocampal activation in the two monocular groups was not different from the baseline, it was significantly higher in the binocular group exposed to the novel environment. This suggest that the representation of environmental novelty in the hippocampus of domestic chicks involves strong binocular integration.

The use of spatial and local cues for orientation in domestic chicks (Gallus gallus).

Birds have been widely used to study spatial orientation. However, since different birds rely on different types of visual information to find goal locations (such as spatial information from free-standing objects or local cues, i.e. characteristics of a goal location like color and shape), it is important to investigate this aspect in each model species. The aim of the present study was to clarify whether domestic chicks, a ground-living bird and a widely used model for the comparative study of spatial orientation, are able to reorient in relation to free-standing objects and if they preferentially follow local or spatial cues. Furthermore, we also investigated whether monocular eye occlusion influences the ability of chicks to use spatial or local cues. Chicks were trained and tested in a large circular arena with free-standing objects providing relational spatial information, to find food in one of the feeders. We found that dark-incubated male chicks were able to reorient in relation to distinct, free-standing landmarks (Experiment 1), but when local and spatial cues were put in conflict, chicks significantly preferred local cues over spatial cues (Experiment 3). Moreover, while the use of one eye system only was not sufficient to orient by spatial cues (Experiment 2), the preference for local over spatial cues was independent of monocular occlusion (Experiment 4). The results are discussed in relation to our general knowledge of spatial information processing in domestic chicks.

Unlearned visual preferences for the head region in domestic chicks.

Unlearned tendencies to approach animate creatures are of great adaptive value, especially for nidifugous social birds that need to react to the presence of potential social companions shortly after hatching. Domestic chicks' preferences for taxidermized hens provided the first evidence of social predispositions. However, the nature of the stimuli eliciting this predisposition is not completely understood. Here we explore the unlearned preferences of visually naïve domestic chicks for taxidermized animals. Visually naive chicks were tested for their approach preferences between a target stimulus (an intact stuffed animal whose head region was clearly visible) and a control stimulus. After confirming the predisposition for the intact stuffed fowl hen (Exp. 1), we found an analogous preference for a taxidermized, young domestic chick over a severely scrambled version of the same stimulus, whose body structure was completely disrupted, extending to same-age individuals the results that had been obtained with taxidermized hens (Exp. 2). We also directly tested preferences for specimens whose head region is visible compared to ones whose head region was occluded. To clarify whether chicks are sensitive to species-specific information, we employed specimens of female mallard ducks and of a mammalian predator, the polecat. Chicks showed a preference for the duck stimulus whose wings have been covered over a similar stimulus whose head region has been covered, providing direct evidence that the visibility of the head region of taxidermized models drive chicks' behaviour in this test, and that the attraction for the head region indeed extends to females of other bird species (Exp. 3). However, no similar preference was obtained with the polecat stimuli (Exp. 4). We thus confirmed the presence of unlearned visual preferences for the head region in newly-hatched chicks, though other factors can limit the species-generality of the phenomenon.

Selective response of the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala to a naturalistic social stimulus in visually naive domestic chicks.

The detection of animate beings at the onset of life is important for phylogenetically distant species, such as birds and primates. Naïve chicks preferentially approach a stimulus resembling a conspecific (a stuffed fowl) over a less naturalistic one (a scrambled version of the stuffed fowl, presenting the same low-level visual features as the fowl in an unnatural configuration). The neuronal mechanisms underlying this behavior are mostly unknown. However, it has been hypothesized that innate social predispositions may involve subpallial brain areas including the amygdala. Here we asked whether a stuffed hen would activate areas of the arcopallium/amygdala complex, in particular the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala (TnA) or septum. We measured brain activity by visualizing the immediate early gene product c-Fos. After exposure to the hen, TnA showed higher density of c-Fos expressing neurons, compared to chicks that were exposed to the scrambled stimulus. A similar trend was present in the lower portion of the arcopallium, but not in the upper portion of the arcopallium or in the septum. This demonstrates that at birth the TnA is already engaged in responses to social visual stimuli, suggesting an important role for this nucleus in the early ontogenetic development of social behavior.

Spontaneous and light-induced lateralization of immediate early genes expression in domestic chicks.

Exposure of domestic chicks' eggs to light during embryo incubation stimulates asymmetrically the two eye-systems, reaching selectively the right eye (left hemisphere) and inducing asymmetries at the behavioral and neural level. Surprisingly, though, some types of lateralization have been observed also in dark incubated chicks, especially at the behavioral level. Here we investigate the mechanisms subtending the development of lateralization, in the presence and in the absence of embryonic light exposure. We measured the baseline level of expression for the immediate early gene product c-Fos, used as an indicator of the spontaneous level of neural activity and plasticity in four areas of the two hemispheres (preoptic area, septum, hippocampus and intermediate medial mesopallium). Additional DAPI staining measured overall cell density (regardless of c-Fos expression), ruling out any confound due to underlying asymmetries in cell density between the hemispheres. In different brain areas, c-Fos expression was lateralized either in light- (septum) or in dark-incubated chicks (preoptic area). Light exposure increased c-Fos expression in the left hemisphere, suggesting that c-Fos expression could participate to the known effects of light stimulation on brain asymmetries. Interestingly, this effect was visible few days after the end of the light exposure, revealing a delayed effect of light exposure on c-Fos baseline expression in brain areas outside the visual pathways. In the preoptic area of dark incubated chicks, we found a rightward bias for c-Fos expression, revealing that lateralization of the baseline level of activity and plasticity is present in the developing brain also in the absence of light exposure.

Social odour activates the hippocampal formation in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).

Experiments from our research group have demonstrated that the olfactory sense of birds, which has been considered as unimportant for a long time, plays a prominent role as communication channel in social behaviour. Odour cues are used e.g. by zebra finch chicks to recognize the mother, by adult birds to distinguish their own eggs from others, or to recognize kin. While there is quite a lot of evidence for the importance of odour for social behaviour, it is not known as yet which brain areas may be involved in the processing of socially relevant odours. We therefore compared the brain activation pattern of zebra finch males exposed to their own offspring odour with that induced by a neutral odour stimulus. By measuring head saccade changes as behavioural reaction and using the expression of the immediate early gene product c-Fos as brain activity marker, we show here that the activation pattern, namely the activity difference between the left and the right hemisphere, of several hippocampal areas in zebra finch males is altered by the presentation of the odour of their own nestlings. In contrast, the nucleus taeniae of the amygdala (TnA) exhibits a tendency of a reduction of c-Fos activation in both hemispheres as a consequence of exposure to the nestling odour. We conclude that the hippocampus is involved in odour based processing of social information, while the role of TnA remains unclear.

Representation of environmental shape in the hippocampus of domestic chicks (Gallus gallus).

The hippocampus plays an important role in spatial encoding and memory across various vertebrate species. In rodents, hippocampal neurons are particularly sensitive to a change in environmental geometry. Given the similarities in function between the mammalian and avian hippocampi, we aimed to measure whether enclosures varying in geometric shape (square and rectangle) can differentially activate hippocampal cells in the domestic chick (Gallus gallus domesticus). Chicks exposed to both a square and a rectangular arena exhibited a significantly higher neural activation (as measured by c-Fos expression) than those exposed twice to just the square or just the rectangle (both of which were significantly higher in activation than a one-environment control group). For the first time in an avian species, we show that exposure to two enclosures of different geometric shape activates the hippocampus to a greater degree, suggesting a possible effect of spatial remapping.

Dynamic features of animate motion activate septal and preoptic areas in visually naïve chicks (Gallus gallus).

The septum is an evolutionarily well-conserved part of the limbic system. It is known to be involved in many aspects of social behavior and is considered a key node of the social behavior network, together with the preoptic area. Involvement of these two brain regions has been recently observed in newly hatched chicks exposed to the natural motion of a living conspecific. However, it is unknown whether these areas respond also to simple motion cues that elicit animacy perception in humans and social predispositions in chicks. For example, naïve chicks are attracted by visual objects that appear to spontaneously change their speed (an index of self-propulsion, typical of animate creatures). Here we show that the right septum and the preoptic area of newly hatched visually naïve chicks exposed to speed changes have higher neuronal activity (revealed by c-Fos expression), compared with that of chicks exposed to constant motion. We thus found an involvement of these two areas in the perception of motion cues associated with animacy in newly hatched chicks without any previous visual experience. This demonstrates their early involvement in processing simple motion cues that allow the detection of animate creatures and elicit social predispositions in this animal model, as well as preferential attention in human infants and the perception of animacy in human adults.