Science / Medicine : Chickens ‘Think’ Like Quail

French scientists last week reported what they claim is the first cross-species transfer of behavior by transplanting brain tissue--resulting in domestic chickens whose calls resemble that of the Japanese quail. Neurologists from the National Scientific Research Center and College of France wrote in Science magazine that they implanted tissue taken from regions of the quail brain believed to control its call into the brains of five chicken fetuses. The transplants only survived for two weeks.

“The crowing sounds of the chickens in the first 10 days after hatching do not resemble the familiar ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ of adult (male) animals, but instead consist of a single loud ‘squeak’ about 0.5-second (in) duration,” which is typical of a quail call’s introductory notes, wrote Evan Balaban and his colleagues.

The researchers said three of the chicks “gave crowing sounds that approximated a quail temporal (rhythm) pattern,” while two made sounds that, although not chicken-like, were indeterminate. “We believe that this constitutes the first demonstration of cross-species behavioral transfer brought about by neuronal (brain cell) transplantation,” the French scientists said.

“This really is revolutionary,” said Peter Marler, a professor of animal behavior at the Rockefeller University Field Research Center in Millbrook, N.Y., who assisted in the behavioral part of the study. “No one thought it was possible to change behavior in this way.”

But the birds’ brains rejected the implants during the second week after hatching and the chicks died.