PERCEPTUAL AND NEURAL ASPECTS OF VISUAL DISPLAYS

大型园丁鸟会季节性地显示声音信号、物理信号和独特的视觉信号--装饰过的凉亭。仅用于引诱雌性交配的蝴蝶花，由树枝制成，装饰着彩色物品。这项拟议中的工作将调查雄性园丁鸟对彩色物体的感知是绝对的还是连续的。范畴知觉包括将连续的刺激分解成类别。园丁鸟的自然倾向是收集提供给它们的彩色物品，这将允许测试颜色偏好和分类感知。我们还将研究被认为在视觉记忆和知觉中重要的核团和已知在发声控制中重要的核团体积的季节性变化。类固醇受体分布的检查将由免疫细胞化学确定，这将允许对园丁鸟和其他鸣禽的激素敏感神经功能进行有趣的比较。这项工作不仅将提供有用的信息，帮助目前不成功的人工饲养园丁鸟的尝试，而且还将扩大或目前对激素在认知中作用方式的理解。我们对荷尔蒙在正常认知中扮演的角色的了解正在迅速扩大，包括使用荷尔蒙治疗绝经后女性认知能力下降症状的广泛意义。我们的研究也是对荷尔蒙在视觉感知中所起作用的初步贡献。

Great bowerbirds seasonally display vocal signals, physical signals and a unique visual signal, a decorated bower. Bowers, used solely to entice females to mate, are made of twigs and decorated with colored objects. The work proposed will investigate whether perception of colored objects used by male great bowerbirds is categorical or continuous. Categorical perception involves parsing continuous stimuli into categories. Bowerbirds' natural tendency collect colored items offered to them will allow testing of color preference and categorical perception. We will also examine seasonal changes in the volume of nuclei thought to be important in visual memory and perception and nuclei known to be important in vocal control. Examination of steroid receptor distributions will be determined by immunocytochemistry, allowing for interesting comparisons between hormone sensitive neural functions in bowerbirds and other songbirds. This work will not only provide helpful information to aid in currently unsuccessful attempts to breed bowerbirds in captivity but will also expand or current understanding of the way hormones function in cognition. Our understanding of the role that hormones play in normal cognition is rapidly expanding to include vast implications for use of hormones in treating symptoms of cognitive decline in post-menopausal women. Our study is also an initial contribution to the role hormones play in visual perception.