Gagliardo Anna, Ioalè Paolo, Odetti Francesca, Kahn Meghan C, Bingman Verner P
Dipartimento di Etologia, Ecologia ed Evoluzione, Università di Pisa, Via A. Volta 6, I-56126 Pisa, Italy.
Behav Brain Res. 2004 Aug 12;153(1):35-42. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2003.10.032.
In contrast to map-like navigation by familiar landmarks, understanding the relationship between the avian hippocampal formation (HF) and the homing pigeon navigational map has remained a challenge. With the goal of filling an empirical gap, we performed an experiment in which young homing pigeons learned a navigational map while being held in an outdoor aviary, and then half the birds were subjected to HF ablation. The question was whether HF lesion would impair retention of a navigational map learned under conditions known to require participation of HF. The pigeons, which had never flown from the aviary before, together with an additional control group that learned a navigational map with free-flight experience, were then released from two distant release sites. Contrary to expectation, the HF-lesioned birds oriented in a homeward direction in manner indistinguishable from the intact control pigeons raised in the same outdoor aviary. HF lesion did not result in a navigational map retention deficit. Together with previous results, it is now clear that regardless of the learning environment present during acquisition, HF plays no necessary role in the subsequent retention or operation of the homing pigeon navigational map.
与通过熟悉地标进行类似地图式导航不同，理解鸟类海马结构（HF）与归巢鸽导航地图之间的关系仍然是一项挑战。为了填补实证空白，我们进行了一项实验，让幼龄归巢鸽在户外鸟舍中学习导航地图，然后对其中一半的鸽子进行HF切除。问题在于HF损伤是否会损害在已知需要HF参与的条件下学习到的导航地图的记忆。这些从未从鸟舍飞出过的鸽子，连同另外一组有自由飞行经验并学习了导航地图的对照组鸽子，随后从两个遥远的放飞地点放飞。与预期相反，HF损伤的鸽子以与在同一户外鸟舍中饲养的完整对照鸽子无法区分的方式朝着归巢方向定向。HF损伤并未导致导航地图记忆缺陷。结合先前的结果，现在很清楚，无论习得过程中存在何种学习环境，HF在归巢鸽导航地图的后续记忆或运用中都没有必要作用。
