The molecular neurobiology of early learning, development, and sensitive periods, with emphasis on the avian brain

The subcellular processes that correlate with early learning and memory formation in the chick and sensitive periods for this learning are discussed. Imprinting and passive avoidance learning are followed by a number of cellular processes, each of which persists for a characteristic time in certain brain regions, and may culminate in synaptic structure modification. In the chick brain, the NMDA subtype of glutamate receptor appears to play an important role in both memory formation and sensitive periods during development, similar to its demonstrated role in neural plasticity in the mammalian brain. Two important findings have emerged from the studies using chickens. First, memory formation appears to occur at multiple sites in the forebrain and, most importantly, it appears to "flow" from one site to another, leaving neurochemical traces in each as it moves on. Second, the memory is laid down either in different sites or in different subcellular events in the left and right forebrain hemispheres. Hence, we are alerted to the possibility of similar asymmetrical processes occurring in memory consolidation in the mammalian brain. The similarities between early memory formation and experience-dependent plasticity of the brain during development are discussed.