The avian ‘prefrontal cortex’ and cognition

Güntürkün, Onur

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2005.10.003

Cited by 299 publications

(261 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Atoji & Wild 2006), and several brain areas have been identified as involved in different types of memory (e.g. Suge & McCabe 2004;Gü ntü rkü n 2005).…”

Section: The Role Of the Hippocampus In Spatial Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Is bigger always better? A critical appraisal of the use of volumetric analysis in the study of the hippocampus

Roth

Brodin

Smulders

et al. 2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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A well-developed spatial memory is important for many animals, but appears especially important for scatter-hoarding species. Consequently, the scatter-hoarding system provides an excellent paradigm in which to study the integrative aspects of memory use within an ecological and evolutionary framework. One of the main tenets of this paradigm is that selection for enhanced spatial memory for cache locations should specialize the brain areas involved in memory. One such brain area is the hippocampus (Hp). Many studies have examined this adaptive specialization hypothesis, typically relating spatial memory to Hp volume. However, it is unclear how the volume of the Hp is related to its function for spatial memory. Thus, the goal of this article is to evaluate volume as a main measurement of the degree of morphological and physiological adaptation of the Hp as it relates to memory. We will briefly review the evidence for the specialization of memory in food-hoarding animals and discuss the philosophy behind volume as the main currency. We will then examine the problems associated with this approach, attempting to understand the advantages and limitations of using volume and discuss alternatives that might yield more specific hypotheses. Overall, there is strong evidence that the Hp is involved in the specialization of spatial memory in scatter-hoarding animals. However, volume may be only a coarse proxy for more relevant and subtle changes in the structure of the brain underlying changes in behaviour. To better understand the nature of this brain/memory relationship, we suggest focusing on more specific and relevant features of the Hp, such as the number or size of neurons, variation in connectivity depending on dendritic and axonal arborization and the number of synapses. These should generate more specific hypotheses derived from a solid theoretical background and should provide a better understanding of both neural mechanisms of memory and their evolution.

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“…Atoji & Wild 2006), and several brain areas have been identified as involved in different types of memory (e.g. Suge & McCabe 2004;Gü ntü rkü n 2005).…”

Section: The Role Of the Hippocampus In Spatial Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Is bigger always better? A critical appraisal of the use of volumetric analysis in the study of the hippocampus

Roth

Brodin

Smulders

et al. 2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…The birds' lineage diverged from mammals 300 Mya (19), at a time when the neocortex had not yet developed from the pallium of the endbrain. Instead, birds developed different pallial parts as dominant endbrain structures (20,21) based on convergent evolution, with the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) as a highlevel association area (22)(23)(24)(25)(26). Where and how numerosity is encoded in vertebrates lacking a neocortex is unknown.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurons selective to the number of visual items in the corvid songbird endbrain

Ditz

Nieder

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

156

187

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It is unknown whether anatomical specializations in the endbrains of different vertebrates determine the neuronal code to represent numerical quantity. Therefore, we recorded single-neuron activity from the endbrain of crows trained to judge the number of items in displays. Many neurons were tuned for numerosities irrespective of the physical appearance of the items, and their activity correlated with performance outcome. Comparison of both behavioral and neuronal representations of numerosity revealed that the data are best described by a logarithmically compressed scaling of numerical information, as postulated by the WeberFechner law. The behavioral and neuronal numerosity representations in the crow reflect surprisingly well those found in the primate association cortex. This finding suggests that distantly related vertebrates with independently developed endbrains adopted similar neuronal solutions to process quantity.single-cell recordings | crow | nidopallium caudolaterale | quantity B irds show elaborate quantification skills (1-3) that are of adaptive value in naturalistic situations like nest parasitism (4), food caching (5), or communication (6). The neuronal correlates of numerosity representations have only been explored in humans (7-9) and primates (10-18), and they have been found to reside in the prefrontal and posterior parietal neocortices. In contrast to primates, birds lack a six-layered neocortex. The birds' lineage diverged from mammals 300 Mya (19), at a time when the neocortex had not yet developed from the pallium of the endbrain. Instead, birds developed different pallial parts as dominant endbrain structures (20, 21) based on convergent evolution, with the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) as a highlevel association area (22-26). Where and how numerosity is encoded in vertebrates lacking a neocortex is unknown. Here, we show that neurons in the telencephalic NCL of corvid songbirds respond to numerosity and show a specific code for numerical information. ResultsCrows were trained in a delayed matching-to-sample task to match the number of (one to five) dots presented on touch-sensitive computer displays ( Fig. 1 A and B). Crows watched two displays (first sample, then test) separated by a 1-s delay. They were trained to peck at the displays on the screen if the test displays contained the same number of items as the sample. We varied the exact physical appearance of the displays by randomly placing dots in arbitrary locations, and by randomly choosing dot size.The crows performed the task proficiently (73.8 ± 0.4% and 77.5 ± 0.5% correct over all recording sessions for crow A and crow J, respectively; Fig. 1C). Average performance of both crows was significantly better than chance (50%) for all sample numerosities relative to the numerically most distant nonmatches (Binomial test, P < 0.01). Better performance for sample numerosities at the low (one) and high (five) numerosity range (Fig. 1D) are most likely due to "endeffects," because one and five items had to be discriminated only fro...

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“…In NCL (or PFC in mammals), delay activity could represent either a sample code or a reward code depending on the nature of the task. Indeed the NCL and PFC are areas that are important for both memory (Miller & Cohen, 2001;Güntürkün, 2005b) as well as processing information related to reward (Watanabe, 1996;Güntürkün, 2005b). On the other hand, our prediction is that in entopallium, an area that should be involved in the memory of the sample and not reward processing, delay activity should be apparent on both red and white remember trials.…”

Section: Figure 8 the Population Response Profile Of Ncl Memory Cellmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…For example, both the NCL and PFC receive projections from visual, auditory, and somatosensory areas, and both project to motor and limbic areas of the brain (Jones & Powell, 1970;Kröner & Güntürkün, 1999). In addition, both the NCL and the PFC are densely innervated by midbrain dopaminergic fibers (Divac et al, 1985;Divac, Björklund, Lindvall, & Passinghman, 1978;Güntürkün, 2005b). Naturally, given 300+ million years of independent evolution, there are going to be some anatomical differences.…”

Section: Avian Ncl Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurophysiological Studies of Learning and Memory in Pigeons

Colombo¹,

Scarf²

2012

CCBR

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The literature on the neural basis of learning and memory is replete with studies using rats and monkey, but hardly any using pigeons. This is odd because so much of what we know about animal behavior comes from studies with pigeons. The unwillingness to use pigeons in neural studies of learning and memory probably stems from two factors, one that the avian brain is seen as radically different from the mammalian brain and as such can contribute little to its understanding, and the other that the behavior of pigeons is not seen as sophisticated as that of mammals, and certainly primates. Studies over the past few decades detailing the remarkable cognitive abilities of pigeons, as well as a newly revised nomenclature for the avian brain, should spark a renewed interest in using pigeons as models to understand the neural basis of learning and memory. Here we review studies on the pigeon's hippocampus and 'prefrontal cortex' and show that they provide information not only on the workings of the avian brain, but also shed light on the operation of the mammalian brain.

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The avian ‘prefrontal cortex’ and cognition

Cited by 299 publications

References 57 publications

Is bigger always better? A critical appraisal of the use of volumetric analysis in the study of the hippocampus

Is bigger always better? A critical appraisal of the use of volumetric analysis in the study of the hippocampus

Neurons selective to the number of visual items in the corvid songbird endbrain

Neurophysiological Studies of Learning and Memory in Pigeons

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