Brain switching: studying evolutionary behavioral changes in the context of individual brain development.

Working together at Nogent, Marie-Aimee Teillet, Nicole Le Douarin and the author successfully developed an extension of the quail-chick transplant technique for relating species brain cell differences to behavioral differences. This article reviews the application of the technique to species differences in motor behavior (crowing) and auditory perceptual preferences. Interspecies brain transplants provide a unique means for elucidating general cellular mechanisms which integrate evolutionary and individual experience during the development of complex brain circuitry.