Prenatal Loud Music and Noise: Differential Impact on Physiological Arousal, Hippocampal Synaptogenesis and Spatial Behavior in One Day-Old Chicks

Abstract

Prenatal auditory stimulation in chicks with species-specific sound and music at 65 dB facilitates spatial orientation and learning and is associated with significant morphological and biochemical changes in the hippocampus and brainstem auditory nuclei. Increased noradrenaline level due to physiological arousal is suggested as a possible mediator for the observed beneficial effects following patterned and rhythmic sound exposure. However, studies regarding the effects of prenatal high decibel sound (110 dB; music and noise) exposure on the plasma noradrenaline level, synaptic protein expression in the hippocampus and spatial behavior of neonatal chicks remained unexplored. Here, we report that high decibel music stimulation moderately increases plasma noradrenaline level and positively modulates spatial orientation, learning and memory of one day-old chicks. In contrast, noise at the same sound pressure level results in excessive increase of plasma noradrenaline level and impairs the spatial behavior. Further, to assess the changes at the molecular level, we have quantified the expression of functional synapse markers: synaptophysin and PSD-95 in the hippocampus. Compared to the controls, both proteins show significantly increased expressions in the music stimulated group but decrease in expressions in the noise group. We propose that the differential increase of plasma noradrenaline level and altered expression of synaptic proteins in the hippocampus are responsible for the observed behavioral consequences following prenatal 110 dB music and noise stimulation.

Early experiences matter: a review of the effects of prenatal environment on offspring characteristics in poultry

“…Conversely, embryos incubated with a 12L:12D light schedule had better retention of a passive avoidance and discrimination task after hatch compared to dark-incubated only chicks (Sui and Rose, 1997 ). Occasional exposure to sounds in the incubation environment (15 min/h from d 10 to hatching), using both natural, species-specific noises and artificial noises (sitar music) increased hippocampal function (Chaudhury et al., 2009 ), which may facilitate learning and memory, and influenced postnatal auditory preferences (Jain et al., 2004 ); however, only high-decibel music (110 dB) positively modulated spatial orientation, learning, and memory when compared with noise (non-patterned or rhythmic) of the same decibel levels (Sanyal et al., 2013 ). Maternal age also can influence offspring characteristics: Chicks from 37-week-old Japanese quail were less reactive when encountering a novel environment, but they were more stressed by social isolation than chicks from 11-week-old quail (Guibert et al., 2012 ).…”

Prenatal exposure to incubation calls affects song learning in the zebra finch

“…Underlying those perceptual and behavioural effects, there is evidence that prenatal acoustic stimulation also alters neural development in the auditory system and associated brain regions, with broader consequences for cognition 17 , 18 . Specifically, pre- and perinatal exposure to species-specific sounds, music or noise has been shown in multiple species—including chickens, rats and humans—to modify neural connectivity and plasticity in several parts of the brain 15 , 18 , 19 , including the hippocampus, and to affect performance in cognitive tasks 17 , 20 . Importantly, the characteristics of the acoustic stimulus are crucial for predicting its effects, with rhythmic sounds, such as music, tending to improve cognitive performance, and arrhythmic sounds, such as noise, having the opposite effect (reviewed by Chaudhury 18 ).…”

PERBEDAAN PENGARUH PAPARAN MUSIK MOZART, BEETHOVEN, DAN CHOPIN SELAMA KEBUNTINGAN TERHADAP INDEKS APOPTOSIS SEL NEURON DI CEREBELLUM Rattus norvegicus BARU LAHIR

“…Penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Rickard dkk (2005), Kauser dkk (2011), Sanyal (2013) menemukan bahwa pemberian stimulus prenatal dengan musik yang memiliki irama teratur dapat meningkatkan kemampuan spasial postnatal dan juga fungsi memori, namun pemberian musik dengan ritme kompleks dan suara bising yang bersifat aritmik memiliki efek sebaliknya.…”