PERCEPTUAL AND NEURAL ASPECTS OF VISUAL DISPLAYS

大园丁鸟季节性地显示声音信号，物理信号和一个独特的视觉信号，一个装饰的凉亭。 保龄球，仅用于吸引女性交配，是由树枝和装饰彩色物体。 这项工作将调查男性大园丁鸟使用的彩色物体的感知是否是分类的或连续的。 分类感知涉及将连续刺激解析成类别。园丁鸟的自然倾向收集提供给他们的彩色项目将允许测试颜色偏好和分类感知。 我们还将研究被认为是重要的视觉记忆和感知核团的体积的季节性变化，核团已知是重要的发声控制。 类固醇受体分布的检查将确定免疫细胞化学，允许有趣的激素敏感的园丁鸟和其他鸣禽的神经功能之间的比较。 这项工作不仅将提供有用的信息，以帮助目前不成功的尝试繁殖园丁鸟在圈养，但也将扩大或目前的理解方式激素在认知中的功能。 我们对激素在正常认知中所起作用的理解正在迅速扩大，包括使用激素治疗绝经后妇女认知能力下降症状的广泛影响。 我们的研究也是对激素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.