Chaillou, Elodie

International audienceFor lambs, the presence or absence of the mother plays an important role in their development. First, colostrum is necessary for passive immunity, health and the development of mother-lamb attachment. The presence of the mother also influences food and social learning and preference. For example, while lambs are able to discriminate familiar and non-familiar conspecifics, lambs reared without their mother display no preference for a specific lamb from their own group. Differences in exploratory and emotional behaviors between mother-reared and mother-deprived lambs have also been reported. Based on the hypothesis that this impact of presence or absence of the mother is supported by the brain, we demonstrated that maternal deprivation delays and affects lamb brain growth and maturation (Fig. 1). In this context, we tested different strategies to counteract the negative impact of rearing with maternal deprivation and milk replacement. Based on behavioral observations, we found that the presence of non-lactating adult ewes improves the state of cleanliness in mother-deprived lambs and that milk enrichment with prebiotic (lactulose) is associated with greater sociality between lambs (Fig.2). Based on brain MRI observations, we found that music-enrichment modifies caudate nucleus volume. Altogether, these studies show the impact of early experience on brain development and cognition in lambs, that are relevant models to understand the complexity of brain and behavior in mammals

Impact of early experience on brain development and cognition in lambs

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