A night vision brain area in migratory songbirds

Summary, in English

Twice each year, millions of night-migratory songbirds migrate thousands of kilometers. To find their way, they must process and integrate spatiotemporal information from a variety of cues including the Earth's magnetic field and the night-time starry sky. By using sensory-driven gene expression, we discovered that night-migratory songbirds possess a tight cluster of brain regions highly active only during night vision. This cluster, here named “cluster N,” is located at the dorsal surface of the brain and is adjacent to a known visual pathway. In contrast, neuronal activation of cluster N was not increased in nonmigratory birds during the night, and it disappeared in migrants when both eyes were covered. We suggest that in night-migratory songbirds cluster N is involved in enhanced night vision, and that it could be integrating vision-mediated magnetic and/or star compass information for night-time navigation. Our findings thus represent an anatomical and functional demonstration of a specific night-vision brain area.

• Författare: H. Mouritsen; G. Feenders; Miriam Liedvogel; K. Wada; E.D. Jarvis
• Publiceringsår: 2005
• Språk: Engelska
• Sidor: 8339-8344
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Volym: 102
• Issue: 23
• Länkar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0409575102
• Dokumenttyp: Artikel i tidskrift
• Förlag: National Academy of Sciences
• Ämne: Biological Sciences
• Nyckelord: behavioral molecular mapping; bird orientation; cognition; magnetic sense; ZENK (zif268; Egr-1; NGF-1A; and Krox-24)
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 1091-6490