Gagliardo A, Ioalè P, Odetti F, Bingman V P, Siegel J J, Vallortigara G
Dipartimento di Etologia, Ecologia ed Evoluzione, Università di Pisa, Via Volta 6, I-56126 Pisa, Italy.
Eur J Neurosci. 2001 Apr;13(8):1617-24. doi: 10.1046/j.0953-816x.2001.01522.x.
One-month-old, inexperienced homing pigeons, prior to any opportunity to learn a navigational map, were subjected to either right or left unilateral ablation of the hippocampal formation (HF). These pigeons were then held together with a group of age-matched control birds in an outdoor aviary, where they were kept for about 3 months with the opportunity to learn a navigational map. When subsequently tested for navigational map learning at about 4 months of age posthatching, control and right HF-ablated pigeons were equally good at orienting homeward from distant, unfamiliar locations, indicating successful navigational map learning. By contrast, left HF-ablated pigeons were impaired in orienting homeward, indicating a failure to learn a navigational map. Interestingly, both right and left HF-ablated pigeons displayed impaired homing performance relative to controls. These results suggest that different aspects of homing pigeon navigation may be lateralized to different hemispheres, and in particular, the HF of the different hemispheres. The left HF appears critical for navigational map learning, i.e. determining an approximate direction home from distant, unfamiliar locations. The right HF, and possibly the left HF as well, appear to play an important role in local navigation near the loft, which is likely based on familiar landmarks.
在有机会学习导航地图之前，对1月龄、没有经验的信鸽进行右侧或左侧海马结构（HF）单侧切除。然后将这些鸽子与一组年龄匹配的对照鸽子一起饲养在室外鸟舍中，在那里它们被饲养约3个月，有机会学习导航地图。当在孵化后约4个月龄时对导航地图学习进行测试时，对照鸽子和右侧HF切除的鸽子在从遥远、不熟悉的地点向家定向方面同样出色，表明导航地图学习成功。相比之下，左侧HF切除的鸽子在向家定向方面受损，表明未能学习导航地图。有趣的是，相对于对照鸽子，右侧和左侧HF切除的鸽子归巢表现均受损。这些结果表明，信鸽导航的不同方面可能在不同半球，特别是不同半球的HF中呈现出偏侧化。左侧HF对于导航地图学习似乎至关重要，即从遥远、不熟悉的地点确定大致的回家方向。右侧HF，可能还有左侧HF，似乎在鸽舍附近的局部导航中发挥重要作用，这可能基于熟悉的地标。
