On a Search for a Neurogenomics of Cognitive Processes Supporting Avian Migration and Navigation

The migratory behavioral profile of birds is characterized by considerable variation in migratory phenotype, and a number of distinct orientation and navigational mechanisms supports avian migration and homing. As such, bird navigation potentially offers a unique opportunity to investigate the neurogenomics of an often spectacular, naturally occurring spatial cognition. However, a number of factors may impede realization of this potential. First, aspects of the migratory behavior displayed by birds, including some navigational-support mechanisms, are under innate/genetic influence as, for example, young birds on their first migration display appropriate migratory orientation and timing without any prior experience and even when held in captivity from the time of birth. Second, many of the genes with an allelic variation that co-varies with migratory phenotype are genes that regulate processes unrelated to cognition. Where cognition and navigation clearly converge is in the familiar landmark/landscape navigation best studied in homing pigeons and known to be dependent on the hippocampus. Encouraging here are differences in the hippocampal organization among different breeds of domestic pigeons and a different allelic profile in the LRP8 gene of homing pigeons. A focus on the hippocampus also suggests that differences in developmentally active genes that promote hippocampal differentiation might also be genes where allelic or epigenetic variation could explain the control of or comparison-group differences in a cognition of navigation. Sobering, however, is just how little has been learned about the neurogenomics of cognition ("intelligence") in humans despite the vast resources and research activity invested; resources that would be unimaginable for any avian study investigating bird navigation.