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Itabashi CampusAdvanced cognitive abilities are awakened by the action of hormones at birth: The role of thyroid hormones in acquiring cognitive flexibility in birds

A research group led by Professor Koichi Homma, Associate Professor Naoya Aoki, and Senior Assistant Professor Chihiro Mori of the Teikyo University Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences has discovered that newly hatched chicks possess advanced cognitive abilities. In an article in the American scientific journal Science Advances, the research group demonstrated that "chicks possess the flexible cognitive ability (cognitive flexibility) to recognize changes in logic and rules and adapt to new logic. This cognitive ability is exerted by thyroid hormones, whose concentrations increase at hatching, acting from the blood on the chick's brain in conjunction with imprinting learning." The research group believes that the cognitive function of thyroid hormones, present in all vertebrates including humans, is one of the abilities that allows animals to adapt to major changes in their living environment after birth, and that acquiring this ability may have enabled animals to evolve and 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 about Professor Koichi Homma of the Faculty Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, please click here.
For more information about Associate Professor Naoya Aoki Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, please click here.
For more information about Senior Assistant Professor Chihiro Mori Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, click here

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