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Functional organization of telencephalic visual association fields in pigeons
Martin Stacho1, Felix Ströckens1, Qian Xiao2
1Ruhr-University Bochum, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Department Biopsychology, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Behavioural Brain Research
|January 24, 2016
Summary
Pigeon visual associative areas activate during discrimination tasks. However, separate form/color and motion pathways converge early, suggesting evolutionary brain miniaturization in birds.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Comparative Cognition
- Avian Vision
Background:
- Birds possess advanced visual processing capabilities.
- The functional organization of avian visual associative areas remains largely unknown.
- Ascending visual pathways in birds feature parallel form/color and motion streams.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate activation of visual associative areas in pigeons during visual discrimination.
- Determine if distinct form/color versus motion pathways exist in these downstream areas.
Main Methods:
- Pigeons were trained on form/color or motion discrimination tasks.
- Immediate early gene protein ZENK was used to map neural activity.
- Activity patterns in visual associative telencephalic structures were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Several visual associative telencephalic structures showed activity changes during discrimination tasks.
- No distinct areas were identified for form/color versus motion processing.
- Pathway segregation observed at thalamo-telencephalic levels was not found downstream.
Conclusions:
- Visual associative areas in pigeons are activated by visual discrimination tasks.
- Separate form/color and motion streams appear to converge early in the avian visual system.
- Early convergence may reflect evolutionary pressure for brain miniaturization.
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