title: Changes in mid-to-late latency auditory evoked responses in the chicken during neural maturation.
abstract: Utilizing the special advantages offered by the protracted maturation of neural circuits in chicken forebrain this study investigates the functional consequence of maturation using auditory evoked response potentials (AERPs) in behaving animals. Repeated measures AERP recordings were undertaken between weeks 1 and 8 posthatch. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant decrease in amplitude of the positive AERP component and a decrease in latency of the negative AERP component with maturation. AERPs were also utilized to investigate perturbed maturation via the induction of chemically induced hypothyroidism. Results from this study showed that the induction of late onset hypothyroidism produces measurable effects on the chicken AERP consistent with perturbation in maturation of neuronal circuits and synapses. This suggests that AERPs may be useful noninvasive functional measures of brain maturation that can be used to study the effects of endogenous or exogenous factors on brain maturation in the chicken. Since human brain also exhibits a protracted maturation period the availability of a well-characterized animal model for protracted brain maturation provides an opportunity to identify molecules, genes and environmental factors that are important in the regulation of maturation. The protracted maturation of neuronal circuits observed in chicken forebrain offers such a model.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and the Hunter Medical Research Institute University of Newcastle Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. rebbekah.atkinson@newcastle.edu.au
authors.forename: Rebbekah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: John A P
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rostas
authors.forename: Mick
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hunter
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000254:growth & development; D002645:Chickens / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000503:physiopathology; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000254:growth & development*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*