What Is Imprinting?

Question

Biology. Animal Behavior. Learning

Answer 1

This should help:

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n14/exper...

Answer 2

there are many meanings of this...u should specify what kind of imprinting...

-Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject.

-Genomic imprinting is a genetic phenomenon by which certain genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin-specific manner. It is an inheritance process independent of the classical Mendelian inheritance. Imprinted genes are either expressed only from the allele inherited from the mother (eg. H19 or CDKN1C), or in other instances from the allele inherited from the father (eg. IGF2). Forms of genomic imprinting have been demonstrated in insects, mammals and flowering plants.

-In chemistry, molecular imprinting is a technique to create template-shaped cavities in polymer matrices with memory of the template molecules. This technique is based on the system used by enzymes for substrate recognition, which is called the "lock and key" model. The active binding site of an enzyme has a unique geometric structure that is particularly suitable for a substrate. A substrate that has a corresponding shape to the site is recognized by selectively binding to the enzyme, while an incorrectly shaped molecule that does not fit the binding site is not recognized.

-Metabolic imprinting refers to the epigenetic programming of metabolism during the pre-natal and neo-natal periods.