同士間の社会性発達を調整する感覚/運動モジュール

抄録

We have established an evaluation method by which domestic chick social behavior can be categorized and quantified. A test chick was left alone in a novel test cage and after a few minutes exposed in sensory-modality specific manner to chicks which were grouped together in another test cage. The test chick raised distress call when left alone, but made food/joyful call, approached, and walked along the cage wall facing to the grouping chicks. The chick called back with a different call pattern to unfamiliar and familiar chicks, suggesting the capability of cognition of familiarity. This grouping behavior, however, was induced only in the case of group-reared chick. A chick reared in socially deprived condition escaped or froze in the same test context. We addressed a question what kind of sensory-motor interaction is crucial for the development of the grouping behavior. Chicks were reared for two weeks in various conditions where a limited social cue was allowed. We found that an integration of auditory and visual cues was crucial and surprisingly experience of feeding together only 10 min per day was enough to develop the grouping behavior. In contrast, no grouping behavior developed without food/water. This result suggested the importance of mutual sensory-motor interaction with a common motivation is important for development of social behavior. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S135]