Neural Substrates of Homing Pigeon Spatial Navigation: Results From Electrophysiology Studies

Hough, Gerald E.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.867939

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…It has also been suggested that Cluster N may be a specialized region for night navigation using both visual and geomagnetic informational cues [ 4 , 5 , 9 ]. We observed ZENK expression in the hippocampal formation in birds exhibiting night migratory restlessness, similar to other avian studies and the hippocampus has been repeatedly shown to be involved in spatial memory and navigation functions [ 28 , 37 , 38 ]. Zapka and colleagues (2009) lesioned Cluster N in migratory songbirds and disrupted magnetic orientation behavior but not sun or star compass behavior.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a North American songbird

Rudolf,

Philipello,

Fleihan

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Night-migrating songbirds utilize the Earth’s magnetic field to help navigate to and from their breeding sites each year. A region of the avian forebrain called Cluster N has been shown to be activated during night migratory behavior and it has been implicated in processing geomagnetic information. Previous studies with night-migratory European songbirds have shown that neuronal activity at Cluster N is higher at night than during the day. Comparable work in North American migrants has only been performed in one species of swallows, so extension of examination for Cluster N in other migratory birds is needed. In addition, it is unclear if Cluster N activation is lateralized and the full extent of its boundaries in the forebrain have yet to be described. We used sensory-driven gene expression based on ZENK and the Swainson’s thrush, a night-migratory North American songbird, to fill these knowledge gaps. We found elevated levels of gene expression in night- vs. day-active thrushes and no evidence for lateralization in this region. We further examined the anatomical extent of neural activation in the forebrain using 3D reconstruction topology. Our findings demonstrate that Swainson’s thrushes possess an extensive bilateral night-activated Cluster N region in the forebrain similar to other European avian species, suggesting that Cluster N is highly conserved in nocturnal migrants.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a North American songbird

Rudolf,

Philipello,

Fleihan

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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show abstract

“…It has also been suggested that Cluster N may be a specialized region for night navigation using both visual and geomagnetic informational cues [31,45,46]. We observed ZENK expression in the hippocampal formation in birds exhibiting night migratory restlessness, similar to other avian studies and the hippocampus has been repeatedly shown to be involved in spatial memory and navigation functions [23,24,38]. Zapka and colleagues (2009) lesioned Cluster N in migratory songbirds and disrupted magnetic orientation behavior but not sun or star compass behavior.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a North American songbird

Rudolf,

Philipello,

Fleihan

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Night-migrating songbirds utilize the Earth’s magnetic field to help navigate to and from their breeding sites each year. A region of the avian forebrain called Cluster N has been shown to be activated during night migratory behavior and it has been implicated in processing geomagnetic information. Previous studies with night-migratory European songbirds have shown that neuronal activity at Cluster N is higher at night than during the day. Comparable work in North American migrants has only been performed in one species of swallows, so extension of examination for Cluster N in other migratory birds is needed. In addition, it is unclear if Cluster N activation is lateralized and the full extent of its boundaries in the forebrain have yet to be described. We used sensory-driven gene expression based on ZENK and the Swainson’s thrush, a night-migratory North American songbird, to fill these knowledge gaps. We found elevated levels of gene expression in night-vs. day-active thrushes and no evidence for lateralization in this region. We further examined the anatomical extent of neural activation in the forebrain using 3D reconstruction topology. Our findings demonstrate that Swainson’s thrushes possess an extensive bilateral night-activated Cluster N region in the forebrain similar to other European avian species, suggesting that Cluster N is highly conserved in nocturnal migrants.

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“…However, so far only very few studies target this issue in any non-mammalian species. Some pioneering works in pigeons (Bingman et al, 2003;Hough andBingman, 2004, 2008;Siegel et al, 2005Siegel et al, , 2006Kahn et al, 2008) reported hippocampal cells with similar response properties to those of rats, which were however not so clearly defined as in rats (Bingman and Sharp, 2006;Hough, 2022). The first demonstration of clearly defined place cells in birds, came much more recently (Payne et al, 2021).…”

Section: Do Chicks Have Place Cells?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, until recently, only one study directly investigated the role of chicks' hippocampus in spatial tasks (Tommasi et al, 2003). We have thus performed a series of experiments using neural activity markers (the immediate early gene product c-Fos) to systematically investigate the involvement of chick hippocampus in different spatial tasks (Mayer et al, 2016(Mayer et al, , 2018, 2022. Immediate early genes are expressed in response to neural activation and their products are often used to map neural activation in mammals and in birds (Lanahan and Worley, 1998;Tischmeyer and Grimm, 1999;Smulders and DeVoogd, 2000;Kubik et al, 2007;Golüke et al, 2019;Corrales Parada et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial cognition and the avian hippocampus: Research in domestic chicks

Morandi-Raikova

Mayer

2022

Front. Psychol.

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In this review, we discuss the functional equivalence of the avian and mammalian hippocampus, based mostly on our own research in domestic chicks, which provide an important developmental model (most research on spatial cognition in other birds relies on adult animals). In birds, like in mammals, the hippocampus plays a central role in processing spatial information. However, the structure of this homolog area shows remarkable differences between birds and mammals. To understand the evolutionary origin of the neural mechanisms for spatial navigation, it is important to test how far theories developed for the mammalian hippocampus can also be applied to the avian hippocampal formation. To address this issue, we present a brief overview of studies carried out in domestic chicks, investigating the direct involvement of chicks’ hippocampus homolog in spatial navigation.

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Neural Substrates of Homing Pigeon Spatial Navigation: Results From Electrophysiology Studies

Cited by 6 publications

References 105 publications

Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a North American songbird

Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a North American songbird

Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a North American songbird

Spatial cognition and the avian hippocampus: Research in domestic chicks

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