Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/8656
Title: Pre- and post-hatching effects of corticosterone treatment on behavior of the domestic chick
Contributor(s): Freire, Rafael (author); van Dort, S (author); Rogers, Lesley  (author)
Publication Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.05.015
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/8656
Abstract: We investigated the effect of 60 ig of corticosterone administered to domestic chicks either before or after hatching on the behavioral response to isolation in a novel arena and performance in a task involving the simultaneous identification of food and detection of a predator (overhead silhouette of a hawk moving overhead). Following release into a novel arena, chicks treated with corticosterone at 18 days of incubation emitted more distress vocalizations. In contrast, no difference in the number of vocalizations was found between chicks treated with corticosterone at day 1 post-hatching and controls. Behavior in the home cages was generally similar across treatments, though chicks treated with corticosterone at 18 days of incubation slept more than control chicks. While searching for grain against a background of pebbles, chicks treated with corticosterone at embryonic day 18, but not chicks treated on day 1 post-hatching, took longer to detect the overhead image of a predator than did controls. Corticosterone treatment at both ages increased the rate of pecking at grains and pebbles. Our findings support work on other birds indicating that corticosterone treatment during incubation influences stress reactivity. The impairment in predator detection in chicks treated with corticosterone on day 18 of incubation appears to be caused by the known effects of corticosterone treatment at this age in preventing the development of lateralization of the thalamofugal visual projections. This further supports the hypothesis that brain lateralization provides an advantage in performing more than one task simultaneously.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Hormones and Behavior, 49(2), p. 157-165
Publisher: Academic Press
Place of Publication: United States of America
ISSN: 1095-6867
0018-506X
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 060801 Animal Behaviour
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Science and Technology

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