Prenatal experience and avian development: brief auditory stimulation accelerates the hatching of Japanese quail.
A single 2-hour exposure to auditory stimulation at any point during the final 3 days of incubation accelerates the hatching of Japanese quail. The 3-day sensitive period includes both prenatal and perinatal stages of incubation. So far as is known these results provide the first unequivocal evidence that short-term prenatal sensory stimulation can affect the development of an avian embryo.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D003370:Coturnix / Q000196:embryology* / Q000254:growth & development; D007185:Incubators; D011784:Quail / Q000196:embryology*