Horn G
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1990 Aug 29;329(1253):133-42. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1990.0158.
Through a learning process known as imprinting, the young of some animals, including the domestic chick, come to recognize an object by being exposed to it. Visually naive chicks vigorously approach a wide range of objects. After an adequate period of exposure to one object chicks selectively approach it in a recognition test. The nervous system of dark-reared chicks is not a tabula rasa, as chicks have predispositions to approach some stimuli rather than others. Nevertheless, visual imprinting leads to changes in a nervous system that may not have been 'marked' by previous visual experience, and so encourages the hope of discovering the neural bases of the learning process. The intermediate and medial part of the hyperstriatum ventrale, a sheet of cells within the cerebral hemispheres, plays a crucial role in visual imprinting, particularly in the memory process of recognition. The cellular and sub-cellular changes that take place in this part of the hyperstriatum ventrale after imprinting are described. The right and left hyperstriatum ventrale regions play different roles in the imprinting process, and evidence is given for the existence of multiple memory systems in the chick brain.
通过一种称为印记的学习过程，包括家鸡在内的一些动物幼崽通过接触某个物体来学会识别它。视觉上未经训练的小鸡会积极接近各种各样的物体。在对一个物体进行足够长的接触期后，小鸡在识别测试中会选择性地接近它。黑暗饲养的小鸡的神经系统并非一片空白，因为小鸡对某些刺激而非其他刺激有接近的倾向。然而，视觉印记会导致神经系统发生变化，而这些变化可能并非由先前的视觉经验所“标记”，因此激发了人们发现学习过程神经基础的希望。腹侧上纹状体的中间和内侧部分是大脑半球内的一层细胞，在视觉印记中起着关键作用，特别是在识别记忆过程中。本文描述了印记后腹侧上纹状体这一部分发生的细胞和亚细胞变化。左右腹侧上纹状体区域在印记过程中发挥不同作用，并且有证据表明雏鸡大脑中存在多个记忆系统。
