NEURAL CORRELATES OF SPATIAL LEARNING IN BIRDS

鸟类空间学习的神经关联

• 批准号: 3430044
• 负责人: TIMOTHY J DEVOOGD
• 金额: $ 7.92万
• 依托单位: CORNELL UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-04-01 至 1994-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3430044
• 关键词: Aves; behavior; ethology; hippocampus; learning; memory; neural information processing; neural plasticity; neuroanatomy; neurobiology; neurons; space perception; synapses

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. 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. Experiments are proposed that will investigate the anatomical basis for the enhanced volume in species that store. This will suggest which aspects of the hippocampus have been augmented to permit this exceptional spatial ability. Other experiments will determine whether hippocampal anatomy in birds that store changes seasonally in phase with seasonal variation in the incidence of storage. If this were found, it would emphasize the extent to which the structure of complex neural networks can be modified in adulthood to allow for (or to encode) enduring changes in behavioral expression. Another experiment will determine whether short-term practice at storing and retrieving results in structural changes in the hippocampus. This experiment is designed so that storage and retrieval use one hemisphere, permitting within-animal comparisons of the consequences of learning. Differences in anatomy found in this experiment could point to sites and mechanisms used in spatial learning. It will be especially interesting to see whether any such changes are general or are focussed, perhaps in regions of the hippocampus that are enhanced in the birds that show the behavior. Together, these experiments assess this form of spatial learning at several levels. They search for network features related to the behavior, for long term structural change in the system related to changes in the frequency of the behavior, and for short term changes related to use. Each of these issues can be related to human spatial learning, its substrate and its capacity for change. The studies in this proposal will generate data that will be used to design a more complete program for investigating the neural substrate of spatial learning in this system.

学习和记忆空间关系是人类的一项重要能力。 许多证据表明海马体对此至关重要 学习形式。 然而，人们对空间关系的了解却少之又少。 编码在海马体中或海马体如何随着学习而变化 空间关系发生。 该应用程序将研究基材 使用新颖的动物模型进行空间学习：鸟类的种子储存。 有几种鸟类隐藏大量种子并且能够 几周或几个月后可靠地检索它们。 多项研究表明 海马体对于学习是必需的——在物种中海马体较大 储存的鸟类比不储存的相关鸟类要多，并且储存的鸟类无法储存 如果海马体受损则进行修复。 实验建议 将研究物种体积增加的解剖学基础 那家商店。 这将表明海马体的哪些方面已被 增强以允许这种特殊的空间能力。 其他实验 将确定鸟类的海马体解剖结构是否发生变化 与储存发生率的季节性变化同步。 如果发现这一点，就会强调结构的程度 复杂的神经网络可以在成年后进行修改，以允许（或 编码）行为表达的持久变化。 另一个实验将 确定存储和检索的短期练习是否会导致 海马体的结构变化。 这个实验的设计是为了 存储和检索使用一个半球，允许在动物体内 比较学习效果。 发现解剖学差异 在这个实验中可以指出空间中使用的站点和机制 学习。 看看是否有这样的情况将会特别有趣 变化是普遍的或集中的，可能发生在海马体区域 在表现出这种行为的鸟类中，这种能力得到了增强。 在一起，这些 实验在几个层面上评估了这种形式的空间学习。他们 长期搜索与行为相关的网络特征 系统的结构变化与频率的变化有关 行为，以及与使用相关的短期变化。 这些问题中的每一个 可能与人类空间学习、其基础和能力有关 为了改变。 本提案中的研究将生成数据 用于设计一个更完整的程序来研究神经网络 该系统中空间学习的基础。