PERCEPTUAL AND NEURAL ASPECTS OF VISUAL DISPLAYS

大园丁鸟季节性地展示声音信号，身体信号和独特的视觉信号，装饰的凉亭。鲍尔斯仅用于引诱雌性交配，由小树枝制成，并用彩色物品装饰。这项工作将调查雄性大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为类别。园丁鸟自然倾向于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感知中很重要的核体积的季节性变化，以及已知在声音控制中很重要的核。类固醇受体分布的检查将由免疫细胞化学决定，允许在园丁鸟和其他鸣禽的激素敏感神经功能之间进行有趣的比较。这项工作不仅将为目前不成功的人工繁殖园丁鸟的尝试提供有用的信息，而且还将扩大目前对激素在认知中的作用方式的理解。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巨大影响。我们的研究也是对激素在视觉感知中的作用的初步贡献。

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.