Food storing, memory and the avian hippocampus

储存食物的鸟类是研究动物行为和认知的重要模型。它们记住大量食物贮藏地点的能力导致了关于记忆的新发现。储存食物的鸟类也比不储存食物的鸟类有更大的海马体和更多的新神经元进入海马体。这些专业化使得在动物身上测试关于记忆和成年神经发生的新想法成为可能，在动物身上，记忆在它们的自然生活中起着关键作用。尽管对这些鸟类的研究取得了显著进展，但令人惊讶的是，我们对自然界的食物储存行为知之甚少，关于储存食物的鸟类的记忆和大脑还有许多问题。该提案描述了以下项目：1)野外食物储存行为，2)记忆的认知控制，以及3)储存食物的鸟类的海马神经发生。黑冠山雀的食物储存是在社会环境中发生的。在秋季和冬季，当大多数储存发生时，山雀生活在多达12只的鸟群中。通过在山雀身上安装纳米标签无线电发射机，并在山雀栖息地架设永久性无线电天线，我们已经能够同时连续几个月地探测到许多鸟类。在拟议的研究中，无线电标签探测数据将与对贮藏行为的直接观察相结合，以确定个体如何在受保护的冬季领地的群体运动限制下分发和取回它们的贮藏物。记忆由涉及不同大脑区域的多个可分离系统组成。但这些过程独立运作的程度是许多争论和实证研究的主题。黑冠山雀的食物储存和获取是在其他行为的背景下进行的。由于它们专门储存食物，与不储存食物的鸟类相比，山雀对记忆的认知控制可能会更强。我建议比较储存食物的山雀和不储存食物的黑眼山雀对记忆的认知控制。成人海马神经发生一直是一个谜。据推测，它既可以为新记忆提供新的神经元，又可以加速遗忘。在山雀中，海马神经发生在秋季和冬季增加，其模式大致对应于季节性食物储存的增加。然而，尽管我的实验室和其他人有诱人的发现，但关于鸟类成年海马神经发生的时间进程或新神经元如何融入海马回路的系统研究却很少。我建议建立海马招募的时间过程，新神经元的活动模式（由即时早期基因表达决定）以及使用记忆对食物储存鸟类神经发生的影响。这项研究将为野外认知、记忆组织和成年海马神经发生功能提供新的信息。

Food-storing birds are important models in the study of animal behaviour and cognition. Their ability to remember the locations of large numbers of food caches has led to new discoveries about memory. Food-storing birds also have a larger hippocampus and greater recruitment of new neurons into the hippocampus than non-storing species. These specializations have made it possible to test novel ideas about memory and adult neurogenesis in animals in which memory plays a key role in their natural lives. Despite remarkable progress in research on these birds, we know surprisingly little about food-storing behaviour in nature and many questions remain about memory and the brain of food-storing birds. This proposal describes projects on 1) food storing behaviour in the wild, 2) cognitive control of memory, and 3) hippocampal neurogenesis in food-storing birds. Food storing by black-capped chickadees occurs in a social context. In fall and winter, when most storing occurs, chickadees live in flocks of up to 12 individuals. By attaching nanotag radio-transmitters to chickadees and erecting permanent radio antennas in chickadee habitat we have been able to obtain detections of many birds simultaneously and continuously for several months. In proposed research, radio-tag detection data will be combined with direct observation of caching behaviour to establish how individuals distribute and retrieve their caches within the constraints of group movement in the defended winter territory. Memory consists of multiple dissociable systems involving different brain regions. But the degree to which these processes operate independently is the subject of much debate and empirical research. Food storing and retrieval by black-capped chickadees occurs in the context of other behaviour. Because of their specialization for food caching, chickadees might be expected to have greater cognitive control of memory compared to non-caching birds. I propose to compare the cognitive control of memory in food-storing chickadees and non-storing dark-eyed juncos. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is an enduring mystery. It has been hypothesized to both provide new neurons for new memories and to accelerate forgetting.  In chickadees, hippocampal neurogenesis is elevated in fall and winter in a pattern that corresponds roughly to elevated seasonal food storing. Despite tantalizing findings from my lab and others, however, there is little systematic research on the time course of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in birds or how new neurons integrate into hippocampal circuits. I propose to establish the time course of hippocampal recruitment, patterns of activity of new neurons (determined by immediate early gene expression) and the influence of using memory on neurogenesis in food-storing birds. This research will provide new information on cognition in the wild, the organization of memory, and the function of adult hippocampal neurogenesis.