Itabashi CampusHigh-level cognitive abilities are awakened by the action of hormones at birth ~ The role of thyroid hormone in the acquisition of cognitive flexibility in birds ~

A research group led by Professor Homma Koichi, Associate Professor Aoki Naoya, and Senior Assistant Professor Mori Chihiro of the Teikyo University Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences discovered that newly hatched chicks have advanced cognitive abilities. In the American scientific journal Science Advances, the research group showed that "chicks have flexible cognitive abilities (cognitive flexibility) that allow them to recognize changes in logic and rules and respond to new logic, and this cognitive ability is exerted by the thyroid hormone, whose concentration increases at hatching, acting on the chick's brain from the blood in association with imprinting learning." The research group believes that the cognitive function of thyroid hormone, which is present in all vertebrates including humans, is one of the abilities that animals use to adapt to major changes in their living environment after birth, and that by acquiring this ability, animals have become evolutionarily able to adapt to different environmental changes.

The results of this research were published in Science Advances on Saturday, October 12, 2024 at 3:00 a.m. (Japan time).
?Perihatch surge of thyroid hormone drives cognitive flexibility in newborn chick.
Aoki, N., Mori, C., Serizawa, S., Fujita, T., Yamaguchi, S. and Homma, K.J.
Science Advances
?DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr5113

Read the press release here
Read the published paper here (in English)

For more information on Professor Koichi Homma of Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, click here
For more information on Associate Professor Naoya Aoki Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, click here
For more information on Senior Assistant Professor Chihiro Mori Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, click here

To the topic List