title: Night-vision brain area in migratory songbirds.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Volkswagen Nachwuchsgruppe Animal Navigation, Institut für Biologie und Umweltwissenschaften, University of Oldenburg, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany. henrik.mouritsen@uni-oldenburg.de
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mouritsen
authors.forename: Gesa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Feenders
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liedvogel
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Erich D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Jarvis
mesh_terms: 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*