Neural and Behavioural Plasticity : The Use of the Domestic Chick as a Model

Over the past 20 years the chick has proved an invaluable model for work on memory formation. This book reviews the work on learning and plasticity in behavioural and neural mechanisms in the chick, as well as related topics, such as the development of behaviour and the lateralization of function.

A great deal is now known about the cellular changes which take place in neural circuits and, over the past twenty years, the chick has proved to be an invaluable model for work on memory formation. The prior experience of the chick is controllable in a way that is impossible to match in any other vertebrate, and the pharmacology and phases of memory formation are better established. In addition, the anatomy of the chick brain is now well established, allowing valuable comparisons with animal models.This book reviews all the main aspects of work on learning and plasticity in behaviour and neural mechanisms in the chick, together with related topics such as the development of behaviour and lateralization of function. It is an authoritative reference for researchers who wish to use the chick or to draw on the relevant literature. The aim is to introduce a wider audience to the chick as an experimental model and to describe the way in which it has been used in the investigation of learning and plasticity at every level, from the behavioural to the molecular. The authors are all experts in their field, from laboratories throughout the world. The book will be useful to all researchers in the field and of interest to psychologists, neurophysiologists, and those studying animal behaviour.