Night-vision brain area in migratory songbirds.
Twice each year, millions of night-migratory songbirds migrate thousands of kilometers. To find their way, they must process and integrate spatiotemporal information from a variety of cues including the Earth's magnetic field and the night-time starry sky. By using sensory-driven gene expression, we discovered that night-migratory songbirds possess a tight cluster of brain regions highly active only during night vision. This cluster, here named "cluster N," is located at the dorsal surface of the brain and is adjacent to a known visual pathway. In contrast, neuronal activation of cluster N was not increased in nonmigratory birds during the night, and it disappeared in migrants when both eyes were covered. We suggest that in night-migratory songbirds cluster N is involved in enhanced night vision, and that it could be integrating vision-mediated magnetic and/or star compass information for night-time navigation. Our findings thus represent an anatomical and functional demonstration of a specific night-vision brain area.
Mouritsen
Henrik
H
Volkswagen Nachwuchsgruppe Animal Navigation, Institut für Biologie und Umweltwissenschaften, University of Oldenburg, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany. henrik.mouritsen@uni-oldenburg.de
Feenders
Gesa
G
Liedvogel
Miriam
M
Wada
Kazuhiro
K
Jarvis
Erich D
ED
D025041:Animal Migration / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D003623:Dark Adaptation / Q000502:physiology*; D003624:Darkness; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D020308:Songbirds / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*