EEG Responses to Visual Landmarks in Flying Pigeons
EEG Responses to Visual Landmarks in Flying Pigeons
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2009.05.070
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发表时间：
2009-07-28
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Lipp, Hans-Peter
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Vyssotski, Alexei L.;Dell'Omo, Giacomo;Lipp, Hans-Peter
背景：GPS对鸽子飞行轨迹的分析可以揭示地形特征对鸽子飞行轨迹的影响。记录反映注意力处理过程的脑电活动，可以指出感兴趣的物体，这些物体不会导致飞行路径的改变。因此，我们研究了当从熟悉的释放点回家时穿越特定的视觉地标是否与脑电图的变化有关。结果：鸟类携带数据记录仪记录GPS位置和飞行过程中的脑电图。首先，对笼鸟的特征脑电图频率进行分类，发现A: 0 ~ 3 Hz， B: 3 ~ 12 Hz, C: 12 ~ 60 Hz, D: 60 ~ 130 Hz, E: 130 ~ 200 Hz。我们分析了鸽子在海上（一个没有特征的环境）和陆地上释放时这些活动带的变化。当鸽子飞过海岸线和其他重要地标时，其脑电图变化模式由两个阶段组成：高频波段（D和/或E）的脑电图激活，随后是c波段的脑电图激活。将脑电图活动与GPS轨迹叠加，使我们能够识别出鸽子感兴趣的地形特征，这些特征无法通过它们飞行路径的明显变化来识别。结论：我们提供的证据表明，脑电图分析可以识别在归巢过程中的地标和感兴趣的对象。中频活动(C)反映了对显著地标的视觉感知，而高频活动（D和E）的激活与更高层次的信息处理有关。E波段的激活可能反映了定位的初始过程，并不一定与视觉信息的处理有关。
Background: GPS analysis of flight trajectories of pigeons can reveal that topographic features influence their flight paths. Recording electrical brain activity that reflects attentional processing could indicate objects of interest that do not cause changes in the flight path. Therefore, we investigated whether crossing particular visual landmarks when homing from a familiar release site is associated with changes in EEG.Results: Birds carried both data-loggers for recording GPS position and EEG during flight. First, we classified characteristic EEG frequencies of caged birds and found five main bands: A: 0-3, B: 3-12, C: 12-60, D: 60-130, and E: 130-200 Hz. We analyzed changes in these activity bands when pigeons were released over sea (a featureless environment) and over land. Passing over the coastline and other prominent landmarks produced a pattern of EEG alterations consisting of two phases: activation of EEG in the high-frequency bands (D and/or E), followed by activation of C. Overlaying the EEG activity with GPS tracks allowed us to identify topographical features of interest for the pigeons that were not recognizable by distinct changes of their flight path.Conclusions: We provide evidence that EEG analysis can identify landmarks and objects of interest during homing. Middle-frequency activity (C) reflects visual perception of prominent landmarks, whereas activation of higher frequencies (D and E) is linked with information processing at a higher level. Activation of E bands is likely to reflect an initial process of orientation and is not necessarily linked with processing of visual information.