A sensitive period for the maintenance of emotionality in Mongolian gerbils.
- 1 April 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology
- Vol. 93 (2) , 200-210
- https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077549
Abstract
Gerbils [Meriones unguiculatus] reared and continuously housed in cages providing access to shelter respond throughout life to sudden visual stimulation by fleeing, hiding and foot thumping. Gerbils reared and housed in cages lacking shelter exhibited this pattern of response to stimulation at 26 and 31 days of age but not at greater ages. During a limited period (days 30-60 after birth) experience with shelter was sufficient to maintain reactivity to stimulation, but similar experience with shelter at 21, 90 or 126 days of age was not sufficient to do so. Shelter experience may be a necessary condition for the maintenance of enhanced reactivity to stimulation but not for its development. Gerbils may not be equally sensitive to shelter experience throughout life.This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- The role of the physical rearing environment in the domestication of the mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)Animal Behaviour, 1977
- Interrupted ongoing behaviour in two species of vole (Microtus agrestis and Clethrionomys britannicus). II. Extended analysis of motivational variables underlying fleeing and grooming behaviourAnimal Behaviour, 1968
- Interrupted ongoing behaviour in two species of vole (Microtus agrestis and Clethrionomys britannicus). I. Response as a function of preceding activity and the context of an apparently ‘irrelevant’ motor patternAnimal Behaviour, 1968