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| Influence of early experience with mothers on the development of social and emotional behaviour in Japanese quail | ||
| Auteur(s) : Bertin, A.; Houdelier, C.; Lumineau, S.; Formanek, L.; Richard-Yris, M.-A. Contributeurs : EthoS, UMR 6552; CNRS; Université de Rennes 1 Référence bibliographique : In L. N. Piccard (Ed.), Biological psychology: New research (pp. 193-211) Type : Chapitre d'ouvrage Éditeur(s) : Nova Science Publishers, New York Date de publication : 2008 | ||
Description : Postnatal epigenetic maternal influence on the development of social and emotional behaviour is a well known phenomenon in mammals including humans. In birds, maternal influence has been mainly evidenced through the analyses of imprinting, expression of sexual behaviour and feeding behaviour. Despite the strong parallels these studies have evidenced between birds and mammals, in birds, maternal influence on the socio-emotional development of their offspring has received very little attention. We review in quail, Coturnix cotunix japonica, our recent works analysing the influence of the early experience with mothers on the ontogeny of social and emotional behaviour. After a brief review of the terminology and the methods used to characterize the behaviour of birds, we will expose and discuss our main results. Our experimental studies revealed that the mere presence of the mother plays a key role in the ontogeny of social and emotional behaviour in young and sub-adult birds. Cross-fostering experiments also demonstrate that the behaviour of the mothers can, to a certain extent, be non-genetically transmitted to the offspring. Indeed, as in mammals, the behaviour of young birds mirrors that of the foster mothers. In each section, we will highlight the parallels between birds and mammals. To conclude, we will discuss how bird models could help understanding the influence of the early social experience with mothers on the ontogeny of behaviour. We will suggest potential new and more integrative lines of research that could also contribute to evidence principles common to different phylogenetic levels. Mots-clés : maternal influence, social behaviour, emotional behaviour, birds |
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