TY - JOUR
T1 - Hippocampus lesions impair landmark array spatial learning in homing pigeons
T2 - A laboratory study
AU - White, Antony R.
AU - Strasser, Rosemary
AU - Bingman, Verner P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by National Institute of Health Grant MH-52315 and National Science Foundation Grant IBN-9807476 to V.P.B., and their support is gratefully acknowledged. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Verner P. Bingman, Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403. Fax: (419) 372-6013. E-mail: [email protected].
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Hippocampal (HF)-lesioned pigeons display impaired homing ability when flying over familiar terrain, where they are presumably relying on a map-like representation of familiar landmarks to navigate. However, research carried out in the field precludes a direct test of whether hippocampal lesions compromise the ability of homing pigeons to navigate by familiar landmarks. To examine more thoroughly the relationship between hippocampus and landmark spatial learning, control, neo-striatum-lesioned, and HF-lesioned homing pigeons were trained on two open field, laboratory, conditional discrimination tasks. One was a visual landmark array task, and the other was a room color discrimination task. For the tasks, the correct of three differently colored food bowls was determined by the spatial relationship among a group of five landmarks and room color, respectively. Intact control birds successfully learned both tasks, while neostriatum-lesioned birds successfully learned the landmark array task - the only task on which they were trained. By contrast, HF-lesioned birds successfully learned the room color task but were unable to learn the landmark array task. The data support the hypothesis that homing performance deficits observed in the field following hippocampal lesions are in part a consequence of an impairment in the ability of lesioned pigeons to use familiar visual landmarks for navigation.
AB - Hippocampal (HF)-lesioned pigeons display impaired homing ability when flying over familiar terrain, where they are presumably relying on a map-like representation of familiar landmarks to navigate. However, research carried out in the field precludes a direct test of whether hippocampal lesions compromise the ability of homing pigeons to navigate by familiar landmarks. To examine more thoroughly the relationship between hippocampus and landmark spatial learning, control, neo-striatum-lesioned, and HF-lesioned homing pigeons were trained on two open field, laboratory, conditional discrimination tasks. One was a visual landmark array task, and the other was a room color discrimination task. For the tasks, the correct of three differently colored food bowls was determined by the spatial relationship among a group of five landmarks and room color, respectively. Intact control birds successfully learned both tasks, while neostriatum-lesioned birds successfully learned the landmark array task - the only task on which they were trained. By contrast, HF-lesioned birds successfully learned the room color task but were unable to learn the landmark array task. The data support the hypothesis that homing performance deficits observed in the field following hippocampal lesions are in part a consequence of an impairment in the ability of lesioned pigeons to use familiar visual landmarks for navigation.
KW - Birds
KW - Cognitive map
KW - Hippocampal formation
KW - Memory
KW - Spatial relational
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U2 - 10.1006/nlme.2001.4053
DO - 10.1006/nlme.2001.4053
M3 - Article
C2 - 12071668
AN - SCOPUS:0036296408
SN - 1074-7427
VL - 78
SP - 65
EP - 78
JO - Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
JF - Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
IS - 1
ER -