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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning

Recording Single Neurons' Action Potentials from Freely Moving Pigeons Across Three Stages of Learning

Published on: June 2, 2014

Natural split-brain? Lateralized memory for task contingencies in pigeons.

Qian Xiao¹, Onur Güntürkün

¹Department of Psychology, Queen's University, 62 Arch Street, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. qian.xiao@queensu.ca

Neuroscience Letters

|April 22, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Pigeons perceive the motion aftereffect (MAE) with their left hemisphere, but not the right. This suggests visual memory for task contingencies is lateralized in birds.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Comparative psychology
Visual perception

Background:

The motion aftereffect (MAE) is a visual illusion where illusory motion is perceived in the opposite direction after a moving stimulus stops.
Birds, like humans and other mammals, can perceive the MAE, indicating conserved visual processing mechanisms.
Hemispheric asymmetries in visual processing may influence the perception and processing of illusions like the MAE.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of hemispheric asymmetries in visual processing on the perception of the motion aftereffect (MAE) in pigeons.
To determine if visual memory for task contingencies related to MAE perception is lateralized in the avian brain.

Main Methods:

Pigeons were trained to discriminate between upward, downward, and stationary grating patterns.
Transfer tests were conducted using binocular and monocular (left eye only, right eye only) viewing conditions.
Choice behaviors were analyzed to assess MAE perception and task contingency memory under different viewing conditions.

Main Results:

Pigeons demonstrated perception of the MAE under binocular and right-eye (left hemisphere) viewing conditions.
Under left-eye (right hemisphere) viewing, pigeons failed to adjust their choice behavior, consistently selecting the response key ipsilateral to the open eye.
This suggests a failure to access task contingency memories in the right hemisphere.

Conclusions:

The left hemisphere of the pigeon brain appears crucial for processing the MAE and accessing learned task contingencies.
The right hemisphere, when viewing monocularly, did not exhibit MAE perception or utilize learned task contingencies.
Absence of the corpus callosum may limit interhemispheric transfer of visual memory for task contingencies in pigeons.