NEUROBIOLOGY OF SPATIAL LEARNING IN FOOD HOARDING BIRDS

食物储藏鸟类空间学习的神经生物学

• 批准号: 2675529
• 负责人: TIMOTHY J DEVOOGD
• 金额: $ 11.26万
• 依托单位: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-04-01 至 2000-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2675529
• 关键词: Aves; animal food; behavioral /social science research tag; blood chemistry; brain mapping; electron microscopy; ethology; fluorescence microscopy; hippocampus; injection /infusion; learning; memory; neural information processing; regulatory gene; seasons; seeds; space perception; species difference

Learning and remembering spatial relations is an important human capacity. Many lines of evidence suggest that the hippocampus is essential for this form of learning, both in humans and in animals. However, much less is known of how spatial relations are encoded in the hippocampus or of how the hippocampus changes as learning of spatial relations occurs. This application will study the substrate for spatial learning using a novel animal model: seed storage in birds. Several species of birds hide large numbers of seeds and are able to retrieve them reliably weeks or months later. Several studies suggest that the hippocampus is necessary for the learning--it is larger in species that store than in related ones that do not, and birds that store are unable to retrieve if the hippocampus is lesioned. The P.I. and colleagues recently showed that the volume of the avian hippocampus increases in juveniles with the onset of storage and retrieval, and fluctuates seasonally in adults with use of seed storage and retrieval. This demonstrates that the structure of this complex neural network can be modified in adulthood to allow for (or to encode) spatial learning. Experiments in the present proposal build on this finding. One series of experiments will compare neuronal morphology and connectivity is species that store and species that do not, to determine whether the augmented volume in storing species is due to increases in a particular constituent of the hippocampus, and whether it is focused on particular regions of the hippocampus. These studies provide detailed neuroanatomy not yet available for this system and may suggest sites or features likely to be especially important for the learned behavior. A second series will determine whether subdivisions of the hippocampus are especially important for storage or for retrieval by either temporarily inactivating portions of the hippocampus or by looking for sites of expression of the immediate early gene c-fos with storage or retrieval. These experiments are designed to separate effects of memory consolidation from memory retrieval. A final series will measure long-term morphological consequences of manipulating experience with spatial learning in adult birds. This will help determine whether the increase in hippocampal volume previously observed permits spatial learning or is caused by it. This proposal assesses several major issues about the neurobiology of avian spatial learning. It searches for network features related to the behavioral capacity, for long term structural change in the system related to seasonal changes in the frequency of the behavior, and for short term changes related to use. Each of these issues is closely related to human spatial learning, its neural substrate and its capacity for change.

学习和记忆空间关系是人类 容量许多证据表明海马体是 对这种学习形式至关重要，无论是在人类还是动物中。 然而，对于空间关系如何在 海马体或海马体如何随着学习 空间关系出现。本申请将研究用于以下的基底： 空间学习使用一种新的动物模型：鸟类的种子储存。 有几种鸟类隐藏着大量的种子， 在几周或几个月后可靠地检索它们。几项研究表明 海马体是学习所必需的， 比不储存的相关物种，以及鸟类， 如果海马体受损，则存储器无法检索。私家侦探 和同事们最近发现， 海马增加青少年与发病的存储和 检索，并在成人季节性波动与使用种子储存 和检索。这表明这个复合体的结构 神经网络可以在成年期进行修改，以允许（或编码） 空间学习本提案中的实验建立在此基础上 发现一系列实验将比较神经元形态 连通性是指储存和不储存的物种， 确定储存物种的增加量是否是由于 海马体的特定成分增加，以及 它集中在海马体的特定区域。这些研究 提供了本系统尚未提供的详细神经解剖结构， 可能会建议网站或功能可能是特别重要的 学习行为第二个系列将决定是否细分 海马体的神经元对于存储和检索 通过暂时使海马体部分失活或通过 寻找即刻早期基因c-fos的表达位点， 存储或检索。这些实验旨在分离 记忆提取对记忆巩固的影响。最终系列 将测量操纵的长期形态后果， 成年鸟类的空间学习。这将有助于确定 先前观察到的海马体积的增加 允许空间学习或由空间学习引起。该提案评估 鸟类空间学习神经生物学的几个主要问题。 它搜索与行为能力相关的网络特征， 与季节变化相关的系统长期结构变化 在行为的频率，并为短期的变化有关 使用.每一个问题都与人类的空间活动密切相关。 学习，它的神经基质和它的改变能力。