Development of species identification in ducklings: III. Maturational rectification of perceptual deficit caused by auditory deprivation.
Mute ducklings, devocalized as embryos and maintained in auditory isolation, manifest a selective high-frequency perceptual deficit vis-à-vis the maternal call of their species at 24 hr after hatching. Since it takes a rather specific auditory experiential input to rectify this high-frequency insensitivity at 24 hr, it was predicted that, in the absence of auditory experience, devocal-isolated ducklings would fail to show sufficient endogenously mediated improvement to bring them up to the level of perceptual competence of vocal-communal ducklings at any age. This hypothesis proved wrong in that the proportion of devocalized ducklings showing a preference for the normal maternal call over the greater than 825-Hz attenuated one became equivalent to the vocal ducklings at 48 hr after hatching, as did their ability to discriminate the normal maternal call from greater than 1,800-Hz attenuated maternal call. At 65 hr, however, the devocalized ducklings' performance deteriorated back to the level observed at 24 hr. Embryonic exposure to the (sibling) contact-contentment call prevents the perceptual deficit at 24 hr and the deterioration at 65 hr.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004372:Ducks / Q000502:physiology*; D007173:Imprinting, Psychological; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D013997:Time Factors; D014828:Vocalization, Animal