Researchers in Saskatchewan are hoping that tests conducted on newborn chickens from a rare flock will help uncover some of the remaining mysteries of epilepsy and its effects on memory.

The chicks — descendants of a flock brought to the province by a scientist in the 1960s — have a genetic mutation that makes the birds prone to seizures and useful in epilepsy research, Debbie Kelly, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Saskatchewan, told CBC News.

"If you rattle on the cage, or you make a lot of noise, or you hit them with light, they will have a seizure," Kelly said.

Henry Classen, head of the Saskatoon university's animal and poultry science department, said researchers believe the mutation is unique among chickens.

"We've sent these birds to other labs in the world and I believe, although I can't confirm this, that there is still a lab in France that has some of our birds," Classen said.

One area of testing on the chicks involves memory, and how epilepsy affects it among the very young.

"We make them learn a task," Kelly said. "They have to find where food is hidden in an environment, time after time after time."

Psychologists will be watching how the chickens with epilepsy learn in the hopes that the research eventually will help children with seizure disorders and will generate new medications and treatments.

A new flock of chickens will hatch in the new year.