Precocity and plasticity: odor deprivation and brain development in the precocial mouse Acomys cahirinus.

Altering the early olfactory environment of animals can have dramatic consequences on the development of brain regions which subserve olfaction. The present study indicates that early odor deprivation has a more severe effect on a species which is born relatively mature than it does on related species which are not. The results call into question prevailing notions about the developmental continuity between animals born in divergent ontogenetic states.