A Sensitive Period of Peer-Social Learning

A critical period has been found in various sensory-motor learning system, for instance, vision, auditory, somatosensory, and language development. This report provides evidence that there may be a sensitive period also in peer-social learning. For consideration of brain toxicology during development, we should know the transient neurobiological process when gene-environment interaction is crucial for development and vulnerability to stress over lifelong. Here we developed an animal model (Gallus gallus domesticus) to study behavioral development of socialization with peers. By a multivariate analysis using principal components analysis, we found that there existed a sensitive period in which social environment was essential for peer social affiliation developmental. The behavioral features of this sensitive period learning were suggested in the head rotation and frequency of freezing in the meeting context with unfamiliar peers. This pre-clinical model of a sensitive period learning may contribute to develop orthomolecular therapy, behavioral and cognitive intervention for social disabilities in developmental psychiatry.

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