Functionally distinct memories for imprinting stimuli: behavioral and neural dissociations.

Precocial chicks exposed to a stimulus subsequently approach that stimulus in preference to other, novel stimuli. Previous investigations of the neural basis of these imprinting preferences suggest that imprinting training results in the formation of two memories. The first memory is formed rapidly and is located in the intermediate and medial part of the hyperstriatum ventrale (IMHV) of the left hemisphere; the formation of the second, in another memory system, S', takes several hours and can be prevented by a lesion placed in the right IMHV soon after training. The results of the present study suggest that the functional characteristics of these memories differ. Although memories in both left IMHV and S' supported imprinting preferences (Experiments 1a and 2a), only memories in S' influenced the acquisition of a heat-reinforced discrimination in which imprinted objects served as discriminanda (Experiments 1b and 2b).

[1]  Imprinting and recognition memory; a review of neural mechanisms , 1991 .

[2]  S. Rose,et al.  Memory in the chick: multiple cues, distinct brain locations. , 1992, Behavioral neuroscience.

[3]  H. Hoffman,et al.  Acquisition of behavioral control by a stationary imprinting stimulus , 1972 .

[4]  P. Bateson,et al.  The effects of prior exposure to light on the imprinting process in domestic chicks. , 1972, Behaviour.

[5]  Amnesia induced by 2-deoxygalactose in the day-old chick: lateralization of effects in two different one-trial learning tasks. , 1991, Behavioral and neural biology.

[6]  R. C. Honey,et al.  The Role of Stimulus Comparison in Perceptual Learning: An Investigation with the Domestic Chick , 1994, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. B, Comparative and physiological psychology.

[7]  Within-event learning during filial imprinting. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes.

[8]  Mark H. Johnson.  Brain development and cognition : a reader , 1993 .

[9]  S. Rose,et al.  Dissociation of brain sites necessary for registration and storage of memory for a one-trial passive avoidance task in the chick. , 1991, Behavioral neuroscience.

[10]  Seth J. Ramus,et al.  Comparative study of roles of the lobus parolfactorius and intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale in memory formation in the chick brain , 1992, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[11]  R. C. Honey,et al.  Perceptual Learning during Filial Imprinting: Evidence from Transfer of Training Studies , 1993 .

[12]  G Horn,et al.  The effect of somaesthetic and photic stimuli on the activity of units in the striate cortex of unanaesthetized, unrestrained cats. , 1965, The Journal of physiology.

[13]  Chantrey Df.  Enhancement and retardation of discrimination learning in chicks after exposure to the discriminanda. , 1972, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[14]  C. Sandi,et al.  Visual input and lateralization of brain function in learning in the chick , 1993, Neuroscience.

[15]  Gabriel Horn,et al.  Effects of restricted lesions of the chick forebrain on the acquisition of filial preferences during imprinting , 1981, Brain Research.

[16]  D. Chantrey,et al.  Retardation of Discrimination Learning in Monkeys and Chicks Previously Exposed to Both Stimuli , 1972, Nature.

[17]  Dawn M. Taylor,et al.  The effects of hyperstriatal lesions on one-trial passive-avoidance learning in the chick , 1988, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[18]  S. Rose.  How chicks make memories: the cellular cascade from c-fos to dendritic remodelling , 1991, Trends in Neurosciences.

[19]  G. Horn,et al.  Memory, Imprinting and the Brain , 1985 .

[20]  H. Hoffman,et al.  Effects of stimulus and environmental familiarity visual imprinting in newly hatched ducklings. , 1973, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[21]  G. Horn,et al.  Mechanisms of information storage after imprinting in the domestic chick , 1987, Behavioural Brain Research.

[22]  Putative cholinergic afferents of the chick hyperstriatum ventrale: A combined acetylcholinesterase and retrograde fluorescence labelling study , 1983, Neuroscience Letters.