A night vision brain area in migratory songbirds
(2005) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102(23). p.8339-8344- Abstract
- 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... (More)
- 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1976924
- author
- Mouritsen, H. ; Feenders, G. ; Liedvogel, Miriam LU ; Wada, K. and Jarvis, E.D.
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- behavioral molecular mapping, bird orientation, cognition, magnetic sense, ZENK (zif268, Egr-1, NGF-1A, and Krox-24)
- in
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- volume
- 102
- issue
- 23
- pages
- 8339 - 8344
- publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:20444430487
- ISSN
- 1091-6490
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.0409575102
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- d13d5f9b-9918-4537-aa66-36ce3d383de0 (old id 1976924)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 12:33:53
- date last changed
- 2022-03-13 19:38:22
@article{d13d5f9b-9918-4537-aa66-36ce3d383de0,
abstract = {{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.}},
author = {{Mouritsen, H. and Feenders, G. and Liedvogel, Miriam and Wada, K. and Jarvis, E.D.}},
issn = {{1091-6490}},
keywords = {{behavioral molecular mapping; bird orientation; cognition; magnetic sense; ZENK (zif268; Egr-1; NGF-1A; and Krox-24)}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{23}},
pages = {{8339--8344}},
publisher = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
series = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}},
title = {{A night vision brain area in migratory songbirds}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0409575102}},
doi = {{10.1073/pnas.0409575102}},
volume = {{102}},
year = {{2005}},
}