Effect of prenatal species-specific and music stimulation on the postnatal auditory preference of domestic chick.

Perinatal sensory experience plays an important role in the development of perceptual preferences. In the present study prenatal enrichment with sound stimulus was given to see its effect on the development of postnatal auditory preference. Auditory stimulation with either species-specific (chicken maternal and hatching calls) or music (slow and fast sitar music) sounds was provided to two separate sets of fertilized eggs from the day 10 of incubation. The postnatal auditory preference of the chicks to either species-specific or music sounds was then tested at different time periods after hatching. All the chicks, irrespective of the type of prenatal exposure, showed preference for species-specific maternal calls. Notably, the music stimulated chicks did not show preference for either slow or fast music. In both the experimental groups, the number of chicks responding to the species-specific maternal calls was significantly (P<0.001) more at 24 h and 48 h post hatch, when compared with the unstimulated control group. Comparison of the species-specific stimulated group with the music stimulated group, for auditory preference to the maternal calls, did not show any significant difference. Further, in the species-specific sound stimulated groups, there was a significant (P<0.001) increase in the number of chicks responding to maternal calls at 60 h of age with repeated testing. However, there was no effect of peer imprinting on the auditory preference of the chicks, in both the experimental groups. The results indicate that prenatal auditory experience with either species-specific or non-specific music enhances the postnatal auditory preference of chicks for the species-specific sounds.