Food imprinting, new evidence from the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis.
Imprinting provides precocial offspring with an efficient means to optimize their subsequent behaviours. We discovered food imprinting using a sophisticated invertebrate model: the cuttlefish. We showed that early juveniles preferred the prey to which they have been visually familiarized, when the amount of information was sufficient and only if such familiarization occurred during a short sensitive period. We also demonstrated that the effects of visual food imprinting overcame those of the first food ingested. Our study shows that visual imprinting is a critical process in animals, surpassing more direct reward experiences that occur outside the critical exposure period.
Darmaillacq
Anne-Sophie
AS
Laboratoire de Physiologie du Comportement des Céphalopodes, EA 3211, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, 14032 Caen cedex, France.
Chichery
Raymond
R
Dickel
Ludovic
L
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D049832:Decapodiformes; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005399:Fishes; D005518:Food Preferences; D007858:Learning; D008954:Models, Biological; D008974:Mollusca; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors