EFFECTS OF BILATERAL HEMISPHERECTOMY ON GENETICALLY VARIABLE STIMULUSPREFERENCES AND IMPRINTING IN QUAIL CHICKS

Bilateral ablation of the telencephalon on the Ist posthatch day preve nted learning from imprinting to colored stimuli in Japanese quail chi cks C. coturnix japonica, but it spared their artificially selected ap proach preferences for particular colors and patterns. Postimprinting decerebration on the 3rd posthatch day erased the imprinted memory, bu t did not revert the chicks' approach choices to the colors of their g enetically distinct initial preferences. The genetically determined an d the acquired preferences were both lost in the latter birds, regardl ess whether they were imprinted to the initially preferred or the init ially nonpreferred stimuli before decerebration. Discussion focuses on implications of the data for modeling specific interactions between a nd the interrelated neural representation of genetic and environmental influences in early behavioral development.