Maternal diet influences offspring feeding behavior and fearfulness in the precocial chicken

International audienceIn chicken, oils in the maternal diet confer a specific scent to the yolk. Embryos are known to perceive and memorize chemosensory signals of the surrounding environment; however, the potential impact of the maternal diet has not previously been investigated. In the present study, we hypothesized that chicken embryos memorize the chemical signals of the maternal diet and that this perceptual learning may orient subsequent feeding behavior of the hatchlings.[br/] Laying hens were fed standard food enriched with 2% menhaden oil (MH group) or 2% soybean oil (controls). The scent of menhaden was significantly more detected in MH egg yolks than in control yolks by a human panel. We analyzed the development and behavior of offspring towards different types of food, bearing or not bearing the menhaden scent. When chicks were exposed to a 3-min choice test between the familiar food bearing the menhaden scent and the familiar food without menhaden, no effect of treatment was observed. In a 3-min choice test with unfamiliar food (mashed cereals) MH chicks showed a clear positive orientation toward the unfamiliar food bearing the menhaden scent. By contrast, control chicks showed a preference for the non-odorized unfamiliar food. MH chicks expressed higher emotional reactivity level than control chicks as expressed by food neophobia and longer immobility in a restraint test.[br/] Chicks exposed in ovo to menhaden oil via the maternal diet preferentially oriented their feeding behavior towards food containing menhaden oil, but only when the food was unfamiliar. We propose that oil in the maternal diet engenders maternal effects and contributes to the development of behavioral phenotype in the offspring. In ovo chemosensory learning may have evolved to prepare precocial offspring for their environment. This suggests a common principle of embryonic chemosensory learning across vertebrate taxa

Perinatal exposure to methoxychlor enhances adult cognitive responses and hippocampal neurogenesis in mice

International audienceDuring perinatal life, sex steroids, such as estradiol, have marked effects on the development and function of the nervous system. Environmental estrogens or xenoestrogens are man-made chemicals, which animal and human population encounter in the environment and which are able to disrupt the functioning of the endocrine system. Scientific interest in the effects of exposure to xenoestrogens has focused more on fertility and reproductive behaviors, while the effects on cognitive behaviors have received less attention. Therefore, the present study explored whether the organochlorine insecticide Methoxychlor (MXC), with known xenoestrogens properties, administered during the perinatal period (from gestational day 11 to postnatal day 8) to pregnant-lactating females, at an environmentally relevant dose (20 µg/kg (body weight)/day), would also affect learning and memory functions depending on the hippocampus of male and female offspring mice in adulthood. When tested in adulthood, MXC perinatal exposure led to an increase in anxiety-like behavior and in short-term spatial working memory in both sexes. Emotional learning was also assessed using a contextual fear paradigm and MXC treated male and female mice showed an enhanced freezing behavior compared to controls. These results were correlated with an increased survival of adult generated cells in the adult hippocampus. In conclusion, our results show that perinatal exposure to an environmentally relevant dose of MXC has an organizational effect on hippocampus-dependent memory and emotional behaviors

Contribution du réseau Hippocampo-amygdalien à la sélection dse informations pertinentes dans le conditionnement classique aversif chez la souris

Nos travaux ont consisté à analyser des configurations neurobiologiques septo-hippocampo-amygdaliennes participant à la sélection des informations pertinentes au cours d’une expérience émotionnellement chargée. En utilisant des procédures de conditionnement classique aversif chez la souris, nous avons montré que des contributions différentielles des noyaux latéral et basolatéral de l’amygdale (compétition vs. coopération entre les noyaux) contribuent à la sélection d’un stimulus saillant, simple et phasique (i.e. un son) ou des éléments du contexte d’apprentissage comme stimuli prédictifs de la survenue d’un événement aversif (i.e. un choc). Nos travaux révèlent également une contribution différentielle des régions latérale et médiane du complexe septal à ce processus de sélection. Enfin, nous avons montré que la modulation cholinergique hippocampique contraint le fonctionnement amygdalien contribuant ainsi à l’expression de réponses conditionnées émotionnelles adaptées à l’apprentissage. Ces travaux nous conduisent à proposer un modèle de fonctionnement dans lequel le complexe amygdalien et le système septo-hippocampique interagissent différentiellement selon le type de conditionnement, permettant ainsi la sélection des stimuli prédictifs. Ils indiquent également que des dysfonctionnements au sein de ce réseau peuvent aboutir à l’établissement de profils mnésiques émotionnels pathologiques.The aim of this work was to specify septal-hippocampal-amgdalar configurations that subserve a selection process of relevant stimuli during an emotionally laden experience. Using Pavlovian fear conditioning procedures in mice, we showed different contributions of the lateral and basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (competition vs. cooperation between these nuclei) to the selection of either a simple and phasic stimulus (i.e. a tone) or polymodal and static contextual cues (that constitute the training environment) as predictive cues of an aversive event (i.e. a footshock). We also showed a differential requirement of the lateral and medial sub-regions of the septal area to this selection process. Finally, we showed that the hippocampal cholinergic signal directly determines the amygdalar functioning, contributing thereby to the expression of adaptive emotional responses to the learning situation. Altogether our findings led us to propose a model in which the amygdalar complex and the septal-hippocampal system differentially interact depending on the conditioning procedure used, contributing thereby to the selection of best emotional predictors. They also indicate that alterations in this septal-hippocampal-amygdalar network can lead to the formation of pathological memory profiles

Comment les volailles perçoivent et interprètent leur environnement : recherche scientifique et exemples d’applications

Les capacités cognitives rassemblent l’ensemble des processus mentaux comme l’attention, la mémorisation, l’apprentissage ou encore les capacités de raisonnement. Ces capacités cognitives permettent à un animal de comprendre et s’adapter à son environnement et sont à la base de très nombreux comportements. Dans cette revue, nous proposons dans une première partie un état des lieux des connaissances actuelles sur les capacités cognitives des volailles, en nous concentrant sur la poule pondeuse et le poulet de chair qui sont les plus étudiés en cognition. Nous montrons brièvement que ces oiseaux possèdent des sens diversifiés et développés, qu’ils interagissent avec leurs congénères et qu’ils sont capables d’apprentissages, entre autres. Même s’il reste encore des recherches à mener, ces oiseaux possèdent un répertoire de capacités cognitives bien plus étendu que ce qui est souvent imaginé. Dans une seconde partie, nous illustrons en quoi ces connaissances apportent une vision nouvelle de notre compréhension de comportements observés en élevage, comme l’exploration du parcours chez le poulet élevé en plein air, ou le picage chez les poules pondeuses. La thématique d’étude de la cognition animale, qui se développe de façon croissante au niveau international, contribue à mieux comprendre la biologie de ces animaux. Sur le long terme, les recherches en cognition permettront de proposer des pistes originales pour guider les pratiques d’élevage et favoriser le bien-être des animaux d’élevage

Emotional contagion of fear and joy from humans to horses using a combination of facial and vocal cues

Emotional contagion, the emotional state-matching of two individuals, has been documented in various species. Recent findings suggest emotional contagion could also take place between humans and domestic mammals. However, the range of targeted animal species and human emotions that have been studied is still limited, and the methodology to investigate emotional contagion in this context is not fully established. This study examined emotional contagion of fear and joy from humans to horses by measuring physiological (heart rate, infrared thermography) and behavioral responses (posture, laterality bias, facial expressions) to videos of human fear, joy, or neutral emotions. Horses (n = 45) exhibited higher heart rates and ear movements during the fear and joy videos compared to the neutral ones, suggesting heightened arousal. During fear videos, they showed a greater increase in eye temperature than during joy or neutral videos, and maintained an alert posture for longer than during neutral videos, expressing specific facial expressions including inner brow raising and blowing. During joy videos, they showed a higher right eye preference (indicating a higher left-hemisphere bias) than during neutral videos, suggesting a more positive emotional valence. These findings suggest that human facial and vocal cues of fear and joy trigger emotional contagion in horses, which may influence the human-horse relationship

A medium density genetic map and QTL for behavioral and production traits in Japanese quail

BACKGROUND: Behavioral traits such as sociability, emotional reactivity and aggressiveness are major factors in animal adaptation to breeding conditions. In order to investigate the genetic control of these traits as well as their relationships with production traits, a study was undertaken on a large second generation cross (F2) between two lines of Japanese Quail divergently selected on their social reinstatement behavior. All the birds were measured for several social behaviors (social reinstatement, response to social isolation, sexual motivation, aggression), behaviors measuring the emotional reactivity of the birds (reaction to an unknown object, tonic immobility reaction), and production traits (body weight and egg production). RESULTS: We report the results of the first genome-wide QTL detection based on a medium density SNP panel obtained from whole genome sequencing of a pool of individuals from each divergent line. A genetic map was constructed using 2145 markers among which 1479 could be positioned on 28 different linkage groups. The sex-averaged linkage map spanned a total of 3057 cM with an average marker spacing of 2.1 cM. With the exception of a few regions, the marker order was the same in Japanese Quail and the chicken, which confirmed a well conserved synteny between the two species. The linkage analyses performed using QTLMAP software revealed a total of 45 QTLs related either to behavioral (23) or production (22) traits. The most numerous QTLs (15) concerned social motivation traits. Interestingly, our results pinpointed putative pleiotropic regions which controlled emotional reactivity and body-weight of birds (on CJA5 and CJA8) or their social motivation and the onset of egg laying (on CJA19). CONCLUSION: This study identified several QTL regions for social and emotional behaviors in the Quail. Further research will be needed to refine the QTL and confirm or refute the role of candidate genes, which were suggested by bioinformatics analysis. It can be hoped that the identification of genes and polymorphisms related to behavioral traits in the quail will have further applications for other poultry species (especially the chicken) and will contribute to solving animal welfare issues in poultry production. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-014-1210-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Vuorovaikutteisen suunnittelun haasteet ja mahdollisuudet metsätalouden vesiensuojelussa

Rapport de l'expertise scientifique collectiveLes animaux peuvent-ils éprouver des émotions, peuvent-ils penser, ont-ils une histoire de vie ? Depuis l’Antiquité, les philosophes ont proposé des réponses contrastées à ces questions. Du XIXème siècle à nos jours, la réflexion sur ce que sont les animaux s’est enrichie d’apports scientifiques : théorie de l’évolution, éthologie, neurophysiologie, sciences cognitives. Mais la conscience animale reste toujours l’objet de débats importants dans la communauté scientifique. Ainsi en 2012 un groupe de scientifiques de premier plan a éprouvé la nécessité de publier un manifeste intitulé « Déclaration de Cambridge sur la Conscience », qui énonce qu’«…une convergence de preuves indique que les animaux non humains disposent des substrats neuro-anatomiques, neurochimiques et neurophysiologiques des états conscients ainsi que la capacité d’exprimer des comportements intentionnels...».Les connaissances actuelles, dont cette expertise collective propose une synthèse, montrent que les animaux possèdent un large éventail de capacités cognitives associées à des comportements plus ou moins complexes. Les formes de conscience étudiées chez les humains supposent des capacités cognitives distinctes que l’on retrouve chez certains animaux. Peut-on en postuler que ceux-ci ont des formes de consciences équivalentes à celles de l’homme, sans être forcément identiques ?L’étude des niveaux et des contenus de la conscience chez les animaux est en passe de devenir un enjeu scientifique important en raison de la complexité du sujet et des controverses qu’il ne manquera pas de susciter. Enfin, les acquis scientifiques dans ce domaine invitent à reprendre les réflexions morales concernant les relations que les hommes entretiennent avec les animaux (et particulièrement avec les animaux domestiques

Comme un coq en pâte : A l'école des cailles

Site INRA - Presse - Communiqués de Presse Dossier de presse INRA "Volailles : Les chercheurs veillent au grain" Apprentissage chez les caille

Memory systems in animals and humans?

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L'importance des nouveaux neurones de l'hippocampe dans la mémoire dépend de leur âge

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