Porterfield Jay H, Sindhurakar Anil, Finley James M, Bradley Nina S
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2015 May;57(4):459-69. doi: 10.1002/dev.21306. Epub 2015 Apr 11.
In an earlier study of newly hatched chicks we reported that continuous bright light exposure throughout incubation accelerated locomotor development and continuous dark exposure delayed it, compared to less intense, intermittent light exposure. Commonly studied gait parameters indicated locomotor skill was similar across groups. However, dark incubated chicks walked with a greater step width, raising the possibility of differences in dynamic balance and control of forward progression. In this study, we established methods to retrospectively examine the previously published locomotor data for differences in lateral drift. We hypothesized that chicks incubated in darkness would exhibit more drift than chicks incubated in light. Analyses identified differences in forward progression between chicks incubated in the two extreme light conditions, supporting the study's hypothesis. We discuss the significance of our findings and potential design considerations for future studies of light-accelerated motor development in precocial and nonprecocial animals.
在一项对刚孵出雏鸡的早期研究中，我们报告称，与强度较低的间歇性光照相比，在整个孵化过程中持续暴露于强光下会加速运动发育，而持续黑暗暴露则会延迟运动发育。常用的步态参数表明，各实验组的运动技能相似。然而，在黑暗中孵化的雏鸡行走时步幅更宽，这增加了动态平衡和前进控制方面存在差异的可能性。在本研究中，我们建立了回顾性检查先前发表的运动数据以分析横向漂移差异的方法。我们假设，在黑暗中孵化的雏鸡比在光照中孵化的雏鸡表现出更多的漂移。分析确定了在两种极端光照条件下孵化的雏鸡在前进方面存在差异，支持了该研究的假设。我们讨论了研究结果的意义以及未来对早成和晚成动物光加速运动发育研究潜在的设计考量。
