Timing of presentation of prenatal auditory stimulation alters auditory and visual responsiveness in bobwhite quail...

One group of bobwhite quail embryos (Colinus virginianus) was exposed to 10 min/hr of bobwhite chick contentment calls immediately followed by 10 min/hr of bobwhite chick distress calls. A 2nd group of embryos was exposed to the same auditory stimulation but in the opposite order of presentation. Postnatal testing revealed that chicks exposed prenatally to the bobwhite chick contentment call and distress call (in either order of presentation) continued to respond to maternal auditory cues into later stages of postnatal development compared with unmanipulated chicks. Chicks exposed prenatally to the contentment call followed by the distress call showed an accelerated pattern of visual responsiveness to maternal cues, whereas chicks exposed prenatally to the distress call followed by the contentment call showed deficits in the normal pattern of perceptual visual responsiveness, suggesting that the auditory stimulation precocial avian embryos encounter 1st is influential in directing early intersensory development.