Seasonal change in the avian hippocampus

Abstract

The hippocampus plays an important role in cognitive processes, including memory and spatial orientation, in birds. The hippocampus undergoes seasonal change in food-storing birds and brood parasites, there are changes in the hippocampus during breeding, and further changes occur in some species in association with migration. In food-storing birds, seasonal change in the hippocampus occurs in fall and winter when the cognitively demanding behaviour of caching and retrieving food occurs. The timing of annual change in the hippocampus of food-storing birds is quite variable, however, and appears not to be under photoperiod control. A variety of factors, including cognitive performance, exercise, and stress may all influence seasonal change in the avian hippocampus. The causal processes underlying seasonal change in the avian hippocampus have not been extensively examined and the more fully described hormonal influences on the mammalian hippocampus may provide hypotheses for investigating the control of hippocampal seasonality in birds.

Sex Hormones and Cognition: Neuroendocrine Influences on Memory and Learning

“…This may be analogous to the larger hippocampal volumes seen in food caching birds compared to nonfood caching birds (342,566). The reader is directed to several reviews dedicated to the relation between hippocampal volume and spatial ability (565,680).…”

Behavioral plasticity is not significantly associated with head volume in a wild Chestnut Thrush (Turdus rubrocanus) population

“…Different behaviors are likely to be under the control of different brain areas (Wingfield 2015). For example, hippocampus volume is linked to food-storing behavior in bird (Croston et al 2015;Sherry and MacDougall-Shackleton 2015); the size of auditory areas is linked to song learning behavior in bird (Nottebohm 1981;Chakraborty et al 2015); and the size of the forebrain region is link to social behavior (Lipkind et al 2002). A recent study reported the absence of correlation between activity during the novel object stimulation after 41 days of environmental enrichment and neurogenesis in the hippocampus and lateral striatum of adult pigeons (Columba livia) (Melleu et al 2015), suggesting that those two brain areas may not be responsible for variation in activity during exposure to novel objects.…”

“Seasonal changes in the neuroendocrine system”: Some reflections

“…This involves the avian hippocampus and both neurogenesis and neural survival. This food-storing behavior changes markedly with season and is correlated with hippocampal size but it does not appear to be under photoperiod control (Sherry & MacDougall-Shackleton, 2015).…”